Five
by LilyPifyouplease
Summary: There had always been five of them, like five fingers to a hand. Each a little different, but belonging together all the same. Join the Marauders on the whirlwind adventure of their lives! Canon with OC, eventual JILY
1. The Begining

**Hi Guys! This is my mega-project that has been floating in my head for years. It may sound a little slow to begin with, but please, give it a chance and let me know what you think!**

I always walked back home from school alone. Mum and Dad trusted me enough to get home – two streets away – safely. I loved the solitude and used to let my imagination run wild during the ten-minute long walk. It was the last day of school, and I realized I would have to find something to do for the next two months. Last year, Belle had bought me a camera, which I still used. Even now, it was tucked into my rucksack, with a bunch of photos I'd taken earlier that day, of my classmates and teacher, Mrs. Jones.

The Cooper family lived near Surrey, in a house which was built by my grandparents after their wedding. My Dad, Samuel Cooper was a detective for the local police, and my Mum, Angela ran her family jewelry shop. My sister, Isabelle, was eighteen, and we were really close. Me? I'm just Ayesha Cooper, year 6, the weird nerdy girl. I was way too short for my age, had clear blue eyes and dark curls which wouldn't even go away when my hair was dripping wet.

I decided to stop by the library on my way home. Entering the old building, I took a second to breathe in the smell of books around me – one of my favourite smells, after Mum's chocolate pudding and freshly fallen leaves. I looked around, smiling at the librarian, Mrs. Reynolds before heading towards the books. As always, I closed my eyes and felt my way around the shelves, before stopping at a random one.

Languages. I'd been meaning to pick up a French book since I saw that cute French couple at the shop a few weeks back. Picking out a beginner's French book, I retraced my steps to the checkout desk and handed over the book to Mrs. Reynolds, the old librarian.

"School over for the summer?" Mrs. Reynolds enquired conversationally. People said she was a bit crazy, but I never thought so. She wore these huge glasses and walked around with a walking stick.

"Yes, I'll be around more often now," I grinned at her. "Lots to read!"

"We're always open for you, dear. And feel free to come by and play with Adeline if you want." Adeline was her eight year old daughter.

"Thanks, Mrs. Reynolds!" I put the book in my rucksack and stepped away from the desk. "Say hi to her for me!"

"Will do!"

I went home after that, jumping over the fence and letting myself in through the back door. Quietly tiptoeing through the house, I put my rucksack on the table before heading towards the front of the house where –

"Is that you, Ayesha?"

"MUM!" I wailed, stomping my foot. "How do you always hear me?"

Mum just smiled at me, like always, her head appearing from between the curtains drawn around her office, with her sparkling green eyes. "There are sandwiches in the fridge, if you're hungry. Try not to make a mess this time," she added, for safety, before retreating back to her office. "I'll be done in about an hour!"

"I never make a mess!"

Later that night, after Dad got home and we finished dinner – Isabelle had warned us she would be late – we were just sitting in the living room. Mum and Dad were chatting about their respective day and I'd just opened up the French book after arranging my photographs when the doorbell rang. Mum went to open it.

"Good evening, Mrs. Cooper. My name is Pomona Sprout. I would like to speak to you and your family, if it's not too much trouble."

I looked up to see Mum inviting in a plump woman. She had a kind face, one which seemed to smile all the time. She was wearing a green sort of dress which went down past her ankles. I saw Dad stand and greet her as she entered the sitting room, and got up myself, hoping to escape with my book.

"Hello, Miss Cooper," the woman said with a kind smile.

"Hello," I said, nervously, trying to smile back. "Umm... I'll be in the kitchen, Mum."

"Actually, would you mind staying here? It'll be so much easier to explain."

So we all sat down and waited for her – I decided to call her Weird Dress lady – to speak.

"I am a Professor at Hogwarts School, where Ayesha has been accepted to study."

I looked nervously at Mum and Dad. Did they put my name up for a new school without even telling me? And what kind of a name was Hogwarts?

"And what school is this, may I ask?" Dad said. "We didn't apply to any new schools for Ayesha. She's already been accepted for her secondary schooling."

"Her name has been down for our school since she was born," she said. "Let me explain."

We waited for her explanation, so she continued.

"I am a professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Witchcraft? Wizardry? "Pardon?" I asked Weird Dress Lady, trying to be as polite as possible.

She smiled. "Hogwarts is a school for Magic."

Magic. Oh please.

"Magic? That's preposterous!" Dad said.

"Magic isn't real," I informed her. Now her name was Crazy Weird Dress Lady. "That's just in fairy tales."

"I can assure you, magic is real. Tell me, Ayesha, have there been times where you've done something you couldn't explain? When you were feeling happy, or angry, maybe?"

I thought over this. But before I could say anything, Mum answered her question.

"When - when she was a baby, she would just reach out and her toys used to fly to her. I saw it happen twice," Mum whispered. "I thought my mind was playing tricks."

My mouth fell open at this revelation, and soon I thought of another thing.

"When I play hide and seek in school, sometimes I find myself in places I don't know. Like that time, I was running in the playground and then suddenly I was in the cafeteria."

The woman - Sprout, she said? - smiled. "That was you doing magic."

"I can do magic?" I asked in wonder.

"Hold on," Dad shook his head. "I still don't understand you. Magic?"

The woman smiled again as she took out something from her pocket. It was a long stick, and she pointed it to the fireplace. A warm fire blazed in it immediately, and no sooner was it there that she pointed her wand at it again and it was gone. She then pointed at the coffee table, on which a bowl of colourful stones were placed. The stones jumped out the bowl, forming a conga line, covering the entire table before jumping back into the bowl.

"Wow," I whispered.

"So, magic is real?" Dad said, still shocked by what we just saw. "Our daughter can do magic?"

"Yes, she can," the woman said patiently. "She's young, so she can't control it. At Hogwarts, we teach you to how to use your magic, how to be a part of the magical community. By the time you are seventeen, you will have completed seven years of study. Hogwarts is the only Wizarding School in Britain, and one of the best in the world."

"So you're a professor there?" Mum asked warily.

"Yes, I teach Herbology."

There was a small silence.

"Professor?" I asked timidly.

She smiled again, indicating me to continue.

"If I can do magic, why can't Mum and Dad do it? Or Isabelle?"

"You are Muggle-born," she explained, "as in, born to a non-magical family. It's a very common occurrence. Sometimes only one child is magical, but there are families where all the children are magical but muggle parents."

"Does that make a difference?" Mum asked.

She hesitated. "No, it does not," she said finally. "Children born into magical families may know about magic and have been around magic since their childhood, but once you are in school, everyone is treated equally. There have been times when Muggle-borns have been more successful than other children."

Me? Magical? Even though I still didn't completely believe her, I was dying to find out more.

"You will have to decide whether Ayesha will be attending Hogwarts or not," the professor continued, taking out a letter from deep within her dress. "This letter has a list of supplies and books which you will require. Normally, the procedure would be for us to decide a day on which I would have taken you to Wizarding London, but there is a witch living nearby who is willing to help."

My eyes, which were focused entirely on the letter that she had placed on the table, darted back to her. "Really? There's a witch here? Who?"

"Corinne Reynolds. She works at the local library."

"Mrs. Reynolds? She knows about magic? And she knows I'm a - a witch?"

The professor laughed. "Yes, she does. She knows that you are a witch, Ayesha. She turned to my parents. "I would advise you to talk to her. It may be helpful."

She left soon after, with a cheerful goodbye. I opened the letter, which was written by the Deputy Headmistress, Professor M. McGonagall.

Mum and Dad were talking in hushed tones. I could tell they were discussing what had just happened.

"She's barmy..."

"So the stones decided to dance for no reason then?"

"But magic? Be reasonable, Ange..."

"I think we should have a chat with Mrs. Reynolds."

We left for the library in ten minutes. I still had the letter clutched in my hands.

"Ayesha?" Mrs. Reynolds was just leaving the library after locking up for the day.

The only answer I gave was to put the letter in her hand.

"Oh..." she smiled as she saw the envelope. "Well, let's not just stand here and wait for the Nargles to get us."

September the 1st came by quickly. I spent most of the summer trying to get Mrs. Reynolds to tell me about Hogwarts. Whenever I asked, pestered, downright demanded, she would just smile and offer me more cookies. She would tell Mum and Dad, but not me.

"Hogwarts is something which you should experience yourself, Ayesha," she would always say.

After many debates, arguments and discussions, we finally agreed that I would go to Hogwarts. We sent Mrs. Reynolds's owl - owl post? Seriously? - with the confirmation.

Mrs. Reynolds's daughter, Adeline, who was three years younger than me, also knew next to nothing about Hogwarts. Since her mother was the secretive type, and her father wasn't magical - or, as I've been told, was a Muggle - she knew very little about magic.

In the first week of August, we went to Diagon Alley to buy everything I would need. We came back home with books full of moving pictures, black robes and a pointy hat, gold and silver coins, a cauldron, ingredients for potions classes and my favourite, a baby snowy owl. I decided to call her Bonnie, a name I had picked for the baby sister I always imagined I would have one day.

I also got my wand. It took almost two hours to find me the right wand - the owner, Mr. Ollivander was beside himself with joy as he offered me half the wands in his shop. He had narrowed down my wood type to rowan, sycamore and spruce before trying red oak with a unicorn tail core. This wand seemed to cooperate; it produced golden stars when I waved it.

September the 1st came by quickly, but not fast enough for me. By the time we were at King's Cross Station, I had read through all the books in my trunk and learnt Latin as well. I figured it might be useful, since most of the spells in _Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1_ seemed to use Latin.

"Here we are," Mrs. Reynolds stopped on the platform, in front of a pillar.

"Platform 9 3/4," she pointed at the pillar. "Now, Ayesha, you can go through, but," she turned to my parents, "when you want to go through without Ayesha, or anyone magical accompanying you, you have to meet that man standing behind the pillar."

I waited as the three of them met with the wizard, a jovial man who introduced himself as Dedalus Diggle. While they were talking, I saw a boy, not older than myself, with messy black hair and glasses pushing a trolley with an owl on it. I watched curiously as he and his parents leaned against the pillar. The boy was looking at my owl. Just before disappearing, he caught my eye and grinned.

"Can we go now, please?" I asked impatiently as they kept chatting with Diggle. "It's going to be eleven soon!"

"Go on, then," Mrs. Reynolds said with a smile. "Let's go together."

The four of us leaned against the pillar, like I had seen that boy doing, and suddenly, we were falling across it as if it wasn't there. I had closed my eyes, and when I opened them, the most incredible sight was awaiting me.

"Wonderful, isn't it?" I heard Mrs. Reynolds say behind me.

A whole platform was suddenly in front of me, complete with a steaming red train. People were bustling around everywhere, more crowded than King's Cross was at the moment. There were kids, some like me, some older. Almost all the adults were wearing robes, and those who weren't were looking uncomfortable – either they rarely wore normal clothes or the rarely came to the wizarding world.

"I didn't know a pillar could hold so many people!"

I heard Mrs. Reynolds chuckle.

"Now you be a good girl, Ayesha," Mum hugged me tightly. "Learn lots, make new friends and stay safe."

"Get into trouble. That's more important. And don't get caught!" Dad said from behind her.

"Sam!" Mum let go of me to glare at him.

"Don't worry, Mum, I'll behave," I grinned, stepping forward to give Dad a hug. "Or not," I whispered into his ear.

He chuckled. "Have fun, Princess."

I got onto the train and Dad pushed my trunk in after me. Not wanting to say goodbye immediately, I waited there until the train started chugging away, and all I could do was wave to Mum and Dad, and my old life.

 **Mrs. Reynolds**

I quietly closed the door to the house. I had been invited over for tea after their daughter left, and I accepted, but when they asked me to stay for lunch I made an excuse and left.

Walking down the path to the street, I remembered the first time I saw the child. Barely two weeks old, a tiny little thing. Her parents had brought her out to the park with her sister. Even then, I knew she was magical. She had a strong aura about her that wouldn't go away.

A few months had passed before I realized we never saw more of the child. As a witch, I was able to spot what was wrong. The child was gifted, talented, but she was born to parents who were yet to understand it. I finally had to call in the Ministry of Magic.

As I walked up the street towards my home, I tried again to convince myself that I had done the right thing. They cursed the poor child, they cursed her family to forget, thanked me for bringing the problem to their attention, and left.

Just as I was about to turn left into the alley that would take me home quicker than the main street, my hand, tucked away in my pocket, brushed against a letter.

A letter that I had written over a thousand times in my head, but just once on paper, because that was all it took. I never thought a Hufflepuff like me would have the courage to owl it. But I knew, if I didn't do it today, the letter would never leave my pocket.

So I walked into the alley and disapparated, appearing with a pop in front of the Leaky Cauldron. Making my way across the crowded pub, I finally reached Diagon Alley, where my destination was the post office.

Just as I was about to tie the letter to the barn owl's leg, I hesitated. Even though I didn't need to see it to remember, I opened it.

 _Professor Dumbledore_

 _My name is Corinne Reynolds. I wanted to confess to something I did a long time ago, concerning a new student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her name is Ayesha Cooper._

Unable to go on, I resealed the letter, tied it to the owl's leg and sent it off.


	2. The Sorting

**Hey guys! So, in my story, Ayesha is one of the Five Marauders (hence the name** _ **Five**_ **). Not just a girl that the Marauders know, but an actual Marauder. All events occur with this in mind – although what is canon has not been changed.**

 **I hope you enjoy it!**

"Do you mind? Everywhere else is full," I asked, poking my head into the first compartment where the occupants weren't too huge or already enthusiastically conversing.

"Not at all," one of the boys answered. He looked all too happy, with his shining silver eyes and laughing face. I took a seat next to the window after putting my trunk in the racks with some help from him. The compartment had two other people - the boy who I'd seen outside the platform (he grinned at me) and a girl with curly red hair. She was looking out the window with tears in her eyes.

"Are you okay?" I asked carefully, not knowing how she would react.

She turned to me. "I'm fine," she said, turning back to the window.

I shrugged, pulling my camera out of my rucksack along with a book. As the two black haired boys started bonding over Quidditch - a very popular sport played on broomsticks in mid-air, apparently - I opened my book, but kept an eye out on the scenery to capture in my camera.

Suddenly, the door opened, allowing another boy to enter. He was already wearing his school robes. Looking around, he ignored everybody else and proceeded to sit next to the crying girl. They talked in whispers, allowing me to return to my book.

"Slytherin?"

The boy with the messy hair was apparently listening to the conversation, and had jumped in with his opinions. Neither the girl nor the new boy liked them - a fact proved by their furious exit from the compartment.

"Umm..." The two boys turned to face me. "If you don't mind me asking, what's Slytherin?"

They looked at me like I was asking them why chocolate tastes good. "Are you muggleborn?" the boy with the glasses asked.

"Yeah."

They relaxed. "Slytherin is one of the school houses," the other boy explained. "Along with Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. I'm Serious, by the way."

"And I'm Joking," the other boy said, trying to hold back a laugh, by the looks of it.

I looked at them, bemused as Serious glared at Joking, before I replied, "And I'm Confused."

Serious looked at me for a minute before he started laughing like a mad man. "That one, I haven't heard before!"

Joking frowned. "So your name's actually Serious? Blimey, I thought you were joking!"

"No, you're Joking," I said, trying to keep a straight face with Serious still laughing.

"No, I'm James, Confused."

It was my turn to laugh. "Can we all just introduce ourselves properly?"

Serious finally sobered up. "Right, I'm Sirius Black. S-i-r-i-u-s."

"Is your middle name Lee?" James asked. "Okay, no more name jokes!" he exclaimed as Sirius sent another glare his way. "James Potter."

"Ayesha Cooper," I smiled, putting my book back into the rucksack. I had a feeling I wouldn't need it on the train anymore. "And this is Bonnie," I said, shoving a few owls treats into her cage.

"That's Hiccups," James said, pointing at his own Tawny owl.

"Hiccups?" Sirius smirked.

"I had a case of the hiccups when he scared me out of them in the menagerie."

"So... What's so bad about Slytherin that you don't wanna be in it?" I asked.

"Almost every dark witch or wizard in recent times has been from Slytherin," James said. "No offence to your family, Sirius."

"None taken," Sirius said easily. "My family is evil."

"So you're writing off a quarter of the student population because some of them turned bad?" I wasn't agreeing with them, but they did seem to know more about Hogwarts than me.

"It's difficult to explain, but you'll see what we mean," Sirius said seriously.

"Okay," I still wasn't satisfied, but I could always ask later. "What about the other houses?"

"Well, Ravenclaws are smart," James grinned. "I mean really smart. And Hufflepuffs are just about the kindest and fairest people you'll ever meet. But Gryffindor," his voice took on a deeper tone, "that's _where dwell the brave at heart_!"

I smiled. "So how do they pick who goes in which house?" I asked, taking out a chocolate bar.

"They make you wear a hat," Sirius said, "it can read your thoughts, so it tells you which house you belong in."

"That's interesting... Chocolate?" I offered.

"Is this muggle chocolate?" Sirius asked curiously, taking a piece and sniffing it.

"I guess?... Wizards have different chocolate too?"

James smirked. "Of course... I might have something in my bag..."

"Anything off the trolley dears?" We looked at the door, where an elderly witch was pushing a trolley filled with what were most definitely magical sweets. I found myself buying a box of almost everything the trolley had to offer.

Hours later, with almost all the Cauldron Cakes gone, Chocolate Frog cards swapped, Every Flavour Beans tasted and liquorice wands chewed, James, Sirius and I were playing Exploding Snap. I had the extraordinary luck of not having the cards explode in my face even once.

"Are you sure you haven't played this before?" James narrowed his eyes at me, which looked quite funny as his eyebrows were completely singed.

"I told you, I haven't! Where would I have gotten the cards, or learnt the game?"

"You're mighty good for a first timer," Sirius said.

"Might just be beginners luck," I scrambled to the window with my camera when I spotted a field of sunflowers.

"That's nice," James saw the picture as I fanned it out to dry.

"Thanks," I smiled, and then quickly snapped two photos of the boys.

"What was that for?" Sirius cried.

"First friends I made in Hogwarts, of course!" I pulled out the two new prints.

James was staring at his photo strangely. "It's weird, not seeing your picture moving."

"You can make photos move?" I asked incredulously. "How?!"

"There's a potion you get to put in the ink," James explained.

I was about to ask for more details when the door opened again. Standing in the doorway was a girl, with platinum blonde hair, maybe sixteen or seventeen. She stood in a manner which suggested she'd rather be somewhere else and her face scrunched up as she looked around the compartment. Sirius had frozen, and it was then that I noticed a certain resemblance.

"Sirius," she said in a high voice. "Didn't Auntie Wal tell you to sit with us?"

Sirius broke out of staring at her and shrugged. "I'd prefer to make my own friends, Cissy."

"With the likes of her?" she barely even looked in my direction as she jerked her head towards me.

I sensed a bit of tension seeping into the room; James had gone very still, and Sirius had almost jumped out of his seat. It might not have been the best idea, but I decided to intervene.

"Of course, he'd prefer to sit with me," I said, keeping a light and airy tone. The three of them turned to face me, confused. "Look at me, I'm adorable!" I tried to make myself seem so by opening my eyes wide and blinked a few times.

James laughed out loud, almost falling off his seat. Sirius stared at me for a few seconds, smirked and turned back to Narcissa, who looked scandalized.

"You are nothing but a mudblood," Narcissa said, apparently disgusted by the fact.

James stopped laughing at once, and Sirius stood up.

"Don't talk to my friends like that," he said, his voice almost a whisper, but strong as steel. Narcissa looked scared, even though she was a good head taller than Sirius. "Leave, now." He shut the door on her face, and then turned around.

"She is completely crazy!" he muttered, falling back into his seat. "I'm sorry about her, Ayesha."

"Why are you apologizing for her?" I asked.

Sirius looked up at me. "She's my first cousin. Crazy like the rest of my family."

"So? That doesn't make you responsible for what she says or does. You still shouldn't apologize."

"She wouldn't have called you that if it wasn't for me!" Sirius exclaimed.

"What, a mudblood?" Both boys flinched. "What does that mean?"

"It's a derogative name for witches or wizards born to muggles," James explained. "Not something you hear every day." He went on to explain the concept of blood purity, which both boys reassured me they did not believe in.

"If your whole family believes in blood purity, how did you learn any different?" I asked Sirius. "Wouldn't you also be like them, because you'd never have met anyone who thought differently!"

He smiled faintly. "I used to – but I always asked _why_ we're better. My parents didn't like that. I also knew a couple of people – my uncle, he told me that those ideals are rubbish. And then last year, my cousin Andie – Cissy's sister – she ran off and married a muggleborn, Ted Tonks. My family disowned her, even tried to kill her, but she escaped. She told me before she did it, and why, and I finally understood. We're all the same, but my family's the one that's crazy."

"You still shouldn't need to apologize," I told Sirius, a bit shaken that his family could consider killing their own child for marrying outside their circle. "I didn't even know what she meant then. Now –" I said, before Sirius or James could open their mouths again. "What are these?" I held up a few marbles, which looked very sinister.

James snorted. "Gobstones. Why don't you give them a little squeeze?"

"I'm guessing something bad happens, so no."

"Black, Sirius!"

Sirius took a deep breath and walked forward to the stool, sitting down and allowing Professor McGonagall to place the hat on his head. Unlike the previous times, the hat didn't declare his house instantly and fell quiet.

"I hope he's in Gryffindor," James murmured.

"So do I," I replied quietly. "What d'you think is taking so long?"

Just as James was about to reply, the hat made its decision.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Yes!" James hissed, and I couldn't help beaming - Sirius escaped Slytherin, and his family's wishes. He took off the hat with a huge grin, winked in our direction and proceeded towards the Gryffindor table.

But it seemed like the three of us were the only ones who were happy - the hall was silent. It was only when Sirius was halfway to his seat that the Gryffindors started clapping - but only half-heartedly.

"Not what they were expecting?" I muttered.

"Definitely."

"Cooper, Ayesha!"

"Good luck," James smiled as I walked towards the hat and sat down. As soon as the hat as on my head, it started talking in my head.

 **Hmmm... A difficult one... But not as difficult as the one before you...**

 _So that's why he'd taken so long with Sirius... Difficult to place._

 **A friend of yours, I see** _,_ he continued. **Strong bonds are developing, despite the length of the relationship.**

 _He's a nice person_ , I tried to tell a hat.

 **I see a deep sense of trust and loyalty in you, along with a lot of courage. These are traits of a true Gryffindor** _._

I felt elated - I wanted nothing more than to be in Gryffindor, with Sirius and James, who would most likely be there, if his opinion was considered.

 **But you have an intelligence streak which rivals the most brilliant minds I have come across** _,_ he continued, dampening my spirits. **Your place is more in Ravenclaw than anywhere else.**

 _Has every intelligent mind always been in Ravenclaw? That would mean all the other students failed all the time._

 **Hmmm... That mind would do brilliant things in Ravenclaw...**

I sighed internally, hoping against hope that I'd be placed with my friends.

 **Or would you be better off in Hufflepuff? With that worth ethic and sense of equality and loyalty you may change the way the world works.**

 _Really, Hat? Are you going to say I'm a good Slytherin next? Isn't your job supposed to be to pick_ one _House?_

 **Careful girl. Your house determines your entire trajectory in life. And there are plans. Grand plans, which you barely even know of... And to fulfil them you must be in...**

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The last word sounded across the entire Hall, and I couldn't believe my luck as I heard what the Hat decided. I thanked the Hat and jumped off the stool as soon as the hat cleared my head. Walking towards the Gryffindor table and amidst the applause, I caught sight of James - he was grinning like a Cheshire cat. I sat down next to Sirius.

"We made it!" I said happily.

"And so will James," Sirius said as Annabeth Davies went to Hufflepuff.

"How are you so sure?" I frowned as Matthew Davies, Annabeth's twin, most likely, went to Ravenclaw. "Twins in different houses?"

"It can happen," Sirius shrugged. "And James will be here, don't worry."

Sirius groaned when the red-haired girl from earlier – Lily Evans – joined the Gryffindors and sat down next to me. Since I would probably have to share a dorm with her, I smiled and introduced myself.

"Oi!" Sirius barked at the girl who was settling herself across Sirius. "You mind leaving a seat empty, I'm saving it for a friend."

She smiled, flipping her long blonde hair back. "Sure." She slid two seats down.

As we waited for James to join us, three others got into Gryffindor; Remus Lupin, a sandy haired boy who looked like he needed to sleep, Mary MacDonald, a skinny girl with brown curls down her back and Peter Pettigrew, a tiny bloke who seemed nervous in the new surroundings.

Finally, it was James's turn. The Sorting Hat had barely touched his head before, "GRYFFINDOR!"

"I told you!" Sirius yelled as he waved for James to come join us.

"We're all together!" James exclaimed as he slid onto the bench. "Now, I'm hungry."

Sirius and I looked at each other. Come to think of it, we actually were hungry.

"Me too," Sirius admitted. "Although I forgot about it until two seconds ago."

"The sorting should be over in a few," I said reassuringly. "Look, he's the last one."

After Jonathan Taylor became a Gryffindor, the applause died down and the older students were looking longingly at their plates.

Professor Dumbledore stood up, instantly silencing whatever whispers there might have been.

"To the new students, welcome!" he said in a grandfatherly voice. "To the old, welcome back! There are a few announcements to be made, but they can wait till we satisfy our stomachs, so tuck in!"

A few of the older students cheered as he sat down, and suddenly, the platters in front of us were full with all sorts of food imaginable.

"Food!" James and Sirius jumped on the tray of chicken in front of them, earning a disapproving glare from Lily.

"There's enough for both of you!" I tried to sneak out a piece with James and Sirius fighting over the biggest piece.

"Aha!" Sirius cried victoriously, leaving James in a slightly grumpy mood until the desserts came out, by which time I had stuffed myself.

"Honestly, I can't eat another - chocolate pudding!"

Sirius and James looked at me, my mouth already stuffed with the pudding I'd scooped up straight from the dish, with curious faces.

"What? I love chocolate, okay? And you're not allowed to judge."

"Hey," Sirius raised his hands. "I didn't say anything against chocolate."

After dinner was over, Dumbledore made a few announcements - no going in the forest, Quidditch trials, no banned items, and the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Jones. The strangest announcement - because it was received with murmurs from the older students - was to stay away from a new tree on the grounds, the Whomping Willow.

"I shall leave you with a few words of intelligence - _Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus_!"

"Is he a bit mad?" I asked James.

"He's a genius, of course he's mad! Come on, the prefects are calling us..."

"Those weren't intelligent words!" I argued, walking down the table to the end of the hall. That meant 'Never tickle a sleeping dragon'!"

"How did you know that?" Sirius asked. "That is intelligent advice, you wouldn't want to really tickle a sleeping dragon, although if it didn't actually wake up, and you tickled it in a spot where it wouldn't feel it…"

"I learnt Latin in the summer," I confessed, stopping Sirius's wayward thoughts of dragon-tickling and following the other first years out of the hall.

"Why?"

I stared at Sirius. "Because I wanted to! What other reason could be there?"

He shrugged. "Well, it could be –"

"Pay attention first years!" a voice called from ahead. "The stairs like to change!"

I watched wonderingly as the stairs in front of us turned, coming to a rest at the foot of the line.

We walked across the magnificent castle, climbing up seven floors before coming to a halt in front of a portrait of a really fat lady.

"This is The Fat Lady," the prefect said.

"Such an imaginative name!" James whispered, earning sniggers from Sirius and me and a glare from the boy in front of us.

With James and Sirius as my friends, I could tell a lot more glares - amongst other things - would be thrown in our direction over the next seven years.

 **James Potter**

I fell on my new four-poster bed with a huge sigh. Not that my bed at home hadn't been as comfortable, but it had been a _long_ day. A very long day with many new people, new places, a new home.

There were four other people in the dorm with me. Sirius, of course, along with Remus Lupin, Jonathan Taylor and Peter Pettigrew. I didn't know what they'd be like, since they hardly talked in the five minutes before we all went to bed.

I turned my head to the left, where Sirius was apparently already fast asleep. He seemed like a good guy at first, and then he stood up against his family to defend someone he just met. I had a feeling we were going to be best friends.

 _Or whatever is better than best friends._

And then there were the girls. I knew two of them from before Hogwarts – Alice Adams and Caroline Forbes were regulars at functions held at the Potter residence. There was Lily Evans, who I managed to insult as soon as I opened my mouth to talk to her. Even at the Gryffindor table during dinner, she barely looked in my direction. I didn't think we were ever going to be friends – especially if she was going to be around that greasy haired Slytherin all the time.

 _But she had pretty eyes. And hair like fire._

And finally, Ayesha. She was so lively, so uninhibited on the train, talking back to Narcissa Black, secure about things like the war against muggleborns. Plus, she beat Sirius and me at Exploding Snap. She was going to be a good friend.

 _Or whatever is better than a good friend._

As I fell asleep, a single thought played across my mind. _It's going to be a good seven years._

 **Isabelle Cooper**

A wave of sorrow swept through me as Mum let me into the house. Because it was the first time in a long time that it was Mum who answered the door.

Bunny was gone.

She wasn't there to jump and grab me in a tight bear hug. She wasn't there for me to pry her off and pinch her cheeks. She wasn't there to ask me about my day, with way more enthusiasm than any eleven-year-old should be allowed to have. She wasn't there to ask how things went with Ted today, and whether he asked me out or not.

Dinner was a subdued affair. Mum and Dad were talking in clipped sentences, trying to show some interest in today's events, but I knew that they missed Bunny. I did, too. So, I excused myself and went to bed early, thinking about the past two months.

At first, when she got that letter, I was mad. Why didn't I get a magical ticket into another world, a hidden world, when I was eleven? It was an irrational thought, but I held on to it.

She went on about her new world, reading her new books, with her wonderful new history, spells, enchantments. Sometimes I went into her room and 'borrowed' a book or two. Magical history, I realized, was terribly in sync with ours. I yearned to learn more about it, but I knew, I would never be a part of their world.

I never showed that side of me to Bunny though. I loved her too much to let her know that I was jealous of her, of her new life. And that love made me see how that jealousy was too petty to hold on to. The only thing that mattered was that my little Bunny was special.

Resigning myself to the fact that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep anytime soon on my own bed, I got up and quietly crossed the hall to Bunny's room. _Just one night_ , I told myself. _Just this once._

Opening her bedroom door, I tiptoed in and closed the door behind me. I flipped on the lights, only to get startled by a huge shape on the bed.

It was a stuffed bunny, with a note.

 _So that you'll always have a Bunny to cuddle with – B._


	3. The Christening

Contrary to habit, I woke up quite early the next day. Feeling disoriented in the huge fluffy bed, I opened my eyes to find red and gold hangings around me. On my headboard were two photographs – one with Isabelle, Mum, Dad and me, which I'd taken two weeks ago; the other, just yesterday, with James and Sirius. Suddenly I remembered – _Hogwarts_. I sat up, pulling the hangings apart – everyone was still sleeping, by the looks of it. The clock on my bedside indicated the time was ten past seven. According to the prefect who showed us around the common room yesterday, breakfast was at half past eight, and classes started an hour after that.

Being as quiet as possible, I slipped out from underneath the warm sheets and tiptoed across the room to the bathroom – only to find someone in it. So, I tiptoed back to my bed, and opened my trunk to pull out my school robes. I just managed to find my wand when I heard the door open and looked up.

Lily was coming out, already dressed. She saw me make my way to her, and mouthed a 'Good morning'.

"Bit early, isn't it," I whispered when I got close enough.

"I'm supposed to meet Severus," she whispered back. "He got sorted into Slytherin."

I nodded. "I think I remember him from the train. I still can't believe we're here."

She grinned. "I know. It all seems like a beautiful dream." Last night, I learnt that Lily was muggleborn, like me. There were three other girls in the dorm with us: Mary MacDonald, a skinny girl with brown curls up to her shoulders; Alice Adams, who was shorter than me (and that's saying something) and Caroline Forbes, whose height I was already jealous of. Caroline and Alice both had magical parents, and Mary's father was a wizard, but she lived with her mum, so she knew very little about the magical world before getting here.

"Why are you up at this time? Early riser?"

"Nah," I grinned, walking to the bathroom. "It's a one-time thing."

Twenty minutes later, I was downstairs in the common room. There was still time before breakfast, so I sought out an unoccupied corner of the large room and started writing a letter to Isabelle. A few minutes later, a boy I recognized as Jonathan came down with a large book and sat down at the table next to me.

"Morning," I said, but he didn't reply, opened his book and stuck his face in it. I shrugged and went back to my letter.

Just as I was rolling up the parchment, two boys rolled down the stairs.

 _Literally_ _rolled down._

The room had gotten a little crowded since earlier, and everyone looked up to see who these two unfortunate souls were.

James Potter and Sirius Black.

Of all the people in Gryffindor House, it had to be the two I knew.

Of course it did.

They got to their feet quite easily, as if they had meant to fall down the stairs. In unison, they looked at the staring crowd.

"What? Haven't you ever seen two boys rolling down stairs?"

"After being pushed out of their own dorm by their own dorm mate for making too much noise?"

The crowd went back to their work, sniggering.

James and Sirius looked around the room and spotted Jonathan looking irritated and me, barely able to control my laughter.

"Morning, Ayesha," James said, while Sirius tried to get a look at Jonathan's face through the book.

"Stop it, Black!" Jonathan hissed, got up and walked out the portrait hole.

"Morning," I smiled. "Who exactly pushed you out?"

"Not the bookworm, but I'm sure he was itching to. He chose to ignore us and come down here to read his precious book."

"You still didn't answer my question."

They sighed. "Remus Lupin," James answered. "Y'know, that kid who looked all tired yesterday? Apparently, one night's sleep isn't enough."

"Well, you shouldn't be making so much noise so early. Especially when you don't know what your dorm mates are like."

"It wasn't noise! I couldn't find my robes!"

I looked questioningly at Sirius. "You were wearing them yesterday."

He simply shrugged. "Can we go down for breakfast yet?"

"I think so," I replied. "The older students are leaving. I need to put this back upstairs, you guys go ahead if you want."

"And miss the walk downstairs with you? Never!" they half yelled.

I laughed and made my way upstairs to my dorm, where everyone was finally up.

"Morning all," I greeted cheerfully. There were a few grumbled replies.

I put the letter in my rucksack, along with the quill and extra parchment, and made my way downstairs. Sure enough, James and Sirius were waiting, and together, we left the common room and made our way to the Great Hall – without getting lost, since we just followed a group of third years.

"We won't be able to follow someone to classes," James sighed. "As soon as we get our schedules, we should start looking around." He looked excited at the prospect.

The hall filled up by the time we finished eating, and at precisely nine o'clock, the four heads of houses started giving out timetables. Since we were first years, we got ours first.

"Transfiguration, break, potions, lunch, double charms, break, History of Magic," Sirius read out loud.

"So we'll get to use magic today?" I said excitedly.

"You've never done magic before?" James looked puzzled. "Not even when you were a baby?"

"My mum said I did, but I don't remember it," I said. "Have _you_ used magic?"

"I make my room change colours sometimes," James shrugged.

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed as we walked up to the tower to get our books. "But I meant with a wand."

"Andy let me use her wand once," Sirius said. "I blasted the family silverware."

"You didn't get in trouble for that?" James asked skeptically.

"There's so much of that stuff no one even noticed it was gone," Sirius smirked.

We got our books and were looking for the Transfiguration classroom. We were joined by Lily, Alice, Remus and Peter. The first thing Remus did was apologize to James and Sirius.

"Relax mate," James said. "We yell in the morning, you kick us out. It's a system. No need to apologize."

Remus looked incredulous, then shook his head and introduced himself to the rest of us.

"And this is Peter," he said, pulling him forward. Peter only smiled in response. "Now where is this class?"

We found the class ten minutes later, just in time for the bell. As we took our seats, I noticed a cat in the front of the room, and nudged Lily, who was sitting next to me. The cat was walking on the teachers' table, looking at the register every few seconds – wait, cats shouldn't be able to read.

We had the class with the Hufflepuffs, and it was a few minutes before everybody had arrived.

Suddenly, the cat jumped down, and in front of us was Professor McGonagall.

"Next time, I will not tolerate latecomers in my class."

As we were still in awe of what happened, she called out our names and started her lecture. She told us what was expected of us, how she always needed our work to be submitted on time and how hard we needed to study. Then she started giving notes on Transfiguration, and by the end of the class, we hadn't even picked up our wands.

"Do all witches turn into cats?" I whispered to Lily as we packed our things.

"I have no idea," she whispered back. "But it wasn't mentioned anywhere in the books I read."

"What are you guys talking about?" Caroline asked from the bench in front of us.

I repeated my question.

"No, not all witches," came a reply. We looked up to see Professor McGonagall writing at her desk. "It's something only I can do in this school, you'll learn about it soon enough."

The rest of the day passed quickly and much in the same fashion. I was disappointed; I'd been looking forward to using magic.

"Cheer up, Shortie," Sirius said, stuffing his mouth with chicken pie at dinner. "We'll be doing magic in no time."

"Shortie?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah, well, your name is a mouthful," he said.

"A mouthful of what? Chicken pie? And what's wrong with 'Ayesha'?"

"He's right, y'know," James reasoned. "Although 'Shortie' doesn't really suit you."

"It shouldn't suit anybody," Remus said from his seat next to Sirius. "It's a horrible name."

"Thank you, Remus!" I called out to him gratefully.

"But we're not calling you Ayesha either," James argued. "What's your full name?"

"Ayesha Rosaline Cooper. Why?" I asked, suspicious.

James and Sirius looked at each other. Then they grinned. Together. It was disturbing.

"What?" I asked, a bit scared of their behaviour.

"Rosie!" they yelled in unison.

"No! I don't like that name!"

"No, she's too tiny to be a rose," Sirius said, looking at me intently.

I groaned, putting my head down on my empty plate.

"Rosebud!" James clicked his fingers.

"I like it," Sirius agreed.

"That's even worse!" I told my plate.

"What's that, Rosebud?" I could hear Sirius smirking. I looked up and glared at him.

"This is _NOT_ a thing. You will _NOT_ call me _Rosebud_!"

I couldn't be bothered to correct them by the end of the day.

We started using magic the very next day, in the next Transfiguration class. My toothpick had now become a needle, and I kept it safely, since Mum had begged me to save my first piece of magic. We met all the other professors, like the tiny Professor Flitwick, who fell off his pile of books when Lily and I were the first ones to make our feathers fly and started racing them around the class; the ghost Professor Binns, during whose lecture Sirius and James actually fell asleep; Professor Slughorn, who kept saying he was sad that Sirius didn't end up in Slytherin like the rest of his family; and Professor Sprout, who actually taught Herbology. The Defence Against The Dark Arts Professor was new, a witch called Diane Jones, who seemed to be overly interested in Remus; Remus looked uncomfortable with the attention.

By Saturday afternoon, I figured out I wouldn't get any homework done if I hung around with James and Sirius, but if I didn't tell them to, they wouldn't get it done either. So I convinced them to finish all the work and have Sunday free and they reluctantly agreed. On Sunday morning, we went exploring around the castle and found the owlery, where I finally got to post my letter, which had increased in volume since the first day. We also found out where all the other classes were going to take place before lunch, and afterwards, we went outside, since James was being very insistent on seeing the Quidditch pitch. On the way there, Sirius and James explained all the rules of the game, and though I looked forward to watching a match, I couldn't imagine flying on a broomstick.

Two weeks later, James, Sirius and I had become close friends. We sat next to each other at meal times, and during classes, one of us would volunteer to sit next to Jonathan, who didn't like people talking during class. Even History of Magic, which was arguably the most boring class on Earth. We spent our free Friday afternoons sitting by the lake finishing homework, something that James, Sirius and I still argued about – homework was for Sundays, they would say, but they still did it with me anyway.

"There!" Sirius proclaimed on one such Friday afternoon. "All done."

"Did you write the Charms essay on the 'swish and flick' movement?" I asked, not looking up from my own Herbology essay.

"Dang it," he muttered. "I'm not writing that now. My hand's gonna fall off."

I smiled as he fell back into the grass, closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.

"Hey Remus! Peter! Come join us!" James yelled suddenly after a few minutes.

I looked up to see them walking towards us with a few books in their hands.

"Hey guys," Remus said. "We were just going to write our Charms essays."

"Well you're in luck," I said, rolling up my finished essay. "We're just going to start that one too. We can collaborate, if you want."

They looked unsure. "I don't know..." Peter said.

"Oh, come on, mate," James rolled his eyes. "It's just an essay. And you know Rosebud's amazing at Charms." That wasn't really true – just because James couldn't get his feather flying on the first day he regarded Charms with apprehension.

"Alright then." Remus and Peter sat down with their books, effectively blocking out Sirius's sunlight.

"Oi!"

"Sirius, we're doing the charms essay, if you want help, now's your chance."

The rest of the afternoon passed by quickly, and by curfew that night, we finished all our homework for the coming week.

It was sheer luck that I had never gotten lost in the castle. The first day, we had followed third years in the morning. Then, we stuck together, finding the classes and exploring the castle. I always thought I had a good sense of direction. But roaming around somewhere between the Owlery and the Great Hall, I had realised that wasn't true.

It was the first Saturday of October and the boys had said last night they were going to sleep in. I planned to as well, before I woke up at six and remembered it was Mum's birthday. So I wrote her a letter, and another for Isabelle, begging her to let me share her present. As the clock struck seven I got dressed and left Gryffindor Tower for the Owlery. On my way back I took a different path to avoid Peeves and his buckets of cold water and Merlin knew what else. And that's how I ended up bumping into someone and falling over.

"Watch it!" the other voice said sharply. I knew that voice.

"I'm sorry, I was lost," I said, sitting up.

It was Severus Snape. He got up too, immediately getting to his feet. "I wouldn't expect any better from a mudblood like you," he spat, and left.

I was so shocked by his words that I couldn't move for a moment. Severus Snape was Lily's friend, how could he treat anyone like that? And if that was his usual behaviour then how was Lily even friends with him?

I got to my feet and kept walking. Thankfully, I ran into Nearly Headless Nick – literally ran into him – and he showed me the way to the Great Hall, where breakfast was underway.

"Rosebud!" James greeted. "We were waiting for you in the common room, but Caroline told us you left already."

"Yeah, I went to the Owlery. It's Mum's birthday," I said, pulling a stack of toast. "And then I got lost. Peeves was setting up something so I took a detour."

"Cool! Wanna go see it later?" Sirius said, with a mouth full of cereal.

"Not really."

But, believe it or not, I found myself walking with the boys out the Great Hall and toward the Owlery.

I spotted Lily going outside with Snape and instinctively called out to her. She turned, asked Snape to wait and came over.

I didn't know whether I should tell her. He was her best friend. Surely, if he treated her the same way, she wouldn't have become friends with him?

"I just wanted to ask – have you done that potions essay?"

James and Sirius looked at me, probably wondering where this was going – we had finished the essay yesterday. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Snape's face – startlingly white against his black hair and robes.

"Sev and I are just going to write it now," Lily said.

"Oh well, I'll ask you about it later." She smiled and skipped off to the doors.

"What," James asked in a low voice, "was that about?"

"Yeah, we finished that essay yesterday," Sirius stated.

"It's just..." I bit my lip, remembering the time on the train when Sirius's cousin had done something similar. They had both been so angry. And this was a month later, when we could use a little bit of magic, and the target knew the same amount of magic. "Nothing. Just had a question, that's all." I started walking towards the Owlery.

"You're not telling us something," Sirius accused, both boys catching up with me.

"What? No!" I was surprised, was I really that bad at lying?

"Was it Snape?" Sirius was looking at me intently.

"How are you doing that? I can only tell she's lying!" James cried from behind us. I looked at him.

"How can you tell I'm lying?"

"So you are lying!" Sirius and James said smugly.

I groaned and turned away from them. "I ran into Snape, okay? He wasn't really pleasant."

"How can you expect someone to be pleasant when he has so much oil in his hair?" James wondered.

But Sirius was not done with playing Sherlock. "She's still not saying the whole story," he announced, overtaking me and walking backwards to face us.

"What?" I said, appalled.

"He did something bad, didn't he?"

I sighed. "I'm not telling you."

"Rosebud," James grabbed my hand, pulling me to a stop. "If he said something, or did something, you tell us, okay?"

"You're going to be really mad and put a dungbomb in his potion or something! It's not worth it!"

"Hey," Sirius said. "It's completely worth it, alright? And now, we're going to do that even if you don't tell us what he did. So, if you tell us, at least we'll know why we're doing it."

So I told them.

If it weren't for the untimely shower of Peeves's cold water and chalk mixture, I don't know what they might have done right then.

Even so, Monday morning, all Potions classes were cancelled for the day after a bag of dungbombs exploded and covered Severus Snape in that stinky dung smell, along with most of his incomplete Forgetfulness Potion; and James Potter, Sirius Black and Ayesha Cooper received the first two nights of detention in their seven year long run.

 **Severus Snape**

I knew I shouldn't have called her that.

I was agitated that day, like I always was, because Mother was making me come home for Christmas. When she knew perfectly well that I was happy here, in Hogwarts, away from Father and his drinks. I had just written the letter which would make or break it - either Mother would burst into tears and let me stay where I wanted to; or she would storm into the Great Hall and drag me back. I was agitated enough that when Cooper bumped me, I called her a mudblood.

There was nothing wrong in doing so, she was, and still is, a mudblood.

I didn't remember that Cooper and Lily were friends until after I posted my letter, when I was standing at the window of the Owlery.

What if Cooper told her and she believed it? What if Lily got mad at me and stopped talking to me? What would I do then? Lily was the only one who knew all my secrets, the only one who talked to me because she wanted to, not because she had to. I stood there, at the window, shaking, thinking of what could happen.

I composed myself and found Lily, waiting by the Entrance Hall, like she had said. We were almost outside when Cooper called out to Lily. That was when I got really scared. Lily would never speak to me again.

But Lily turned around, her hair flying out behind her, and skipped back to me, grabbed my hand and pulled me out.

I don't know why she didn't tell Lily, but when the bag of dungbombs exploded in my face, I knew it was for revenge.

The only way I could keep Lily at my side was by lying.

I would do that. I'd do anything. I'd learn how to keep my emotions at bay, and learn how to lie. I would learn to lie in the face of anyone who stood in my way. Anyone in the whole world. Even Lily.

Anything for Lily.


	4. Metamorphmagus

**Hope you guys enjoy this one! Leave a review :) let me know what you guys think!**

Lily was livid. She was Snape's partner in Potions, and so she got covered in potion as well. Thankfully, or not, the incomplete Forgetfulness Potion had no effect on their memory. She found us in the common room before lunch.

"What in the world possessed you to do that?" Lily cried furiously.

"What?" We looked up from the _Daily Prophet_ in unison. We were reading an article about James's parents colleagues from the Auror Department in the Ministry of Magic – several criminals who were aligned with whoever they were calling Lord Voldemort had been arrested.

"Don't act all innocent! How could you do that?"

"We didn't mean to get you! We meant to get Snape!" Sirius said.

"We did apologise to you," James said solemnly.

"Severus is my friend! Why would you something so stupid, so childish?"

" _Snivellus_ isn't a good guy, Evans," James said seriously.

"How would you know, Potter?" Lily's hands were on her hips. "Have you ever spent time with him? And _don't call him that!_ "

"No, but -"

"So how would you know whether he's a good guy or not?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Lily!" I finally couldn't take it anymore. "Snape isn't a good guy! And stop over reacting, for goodness sake, it was just a bag of dungbombs! Have you heard the kind of pranks the Prewett twins do without reason?" The Prewett twins, Gideon and Fabian, were fifth year mischief makers, and James and Sirius's idols.

She looked at me. "I don't care what they do or don't do, Ayesha. I didn't expect you to do it." And she turned around and walked out the portrait hole.

"Don't worry guys, I'll talk to her later."

But later didn't come, as Lily determinedly kept her distance. She sat with Snape during lunch, refused to acknowledge me in corridors and sat as far away as possible in Charms and Defence. After dinner, where Lily was once again absent from the Gryffindor table, we had to go for detentions with Mr. Filch. He left us in the Trophy Room, with a pile of cleaning supplies. Sadly, even though we had our wands, we couldn't really use them in this situation yet.

"Things to this weekend: Learn cleaning spells at Library," James said as he scrubbed at a spot on a Potions trophy.

"We can't really practice them anywhere," Sirius said, mopping the floor.

"Unless we create the mess ourselves," I paused, coughing because of the dust I had disturbed, "but forget I said that. They'll realise we're using magic and take our wands the next time."

"I like how even Rosebud's accepted the fact that we'll be getting plenty more detentions," James smirked.

"It's inevitable," I sighed.

"Did you get a chance to talk to Evans?" Sirius asked after a while, breaking the continuous _swish, mop, scrub, swish, mop, scrub_ tune.

"Nope. I was with you guys the whole day, wasn't I? I'll talk to her later."

"You'll tell her the truth?" James asked.

"Yeah, I think so. She might not believe me, though."

'Might not' was an understatement. That night in the girl's dorm, Lily solidly refused to hear anything against Snape, even when I got her to calm down and listen to me. Mary, Alice and Caroline didn't really know what to say, so they stayed out of it.

I went back down the stairs to report the outcome to the boys, who were discussing something else.

"How ill do you think his mum is?"

"He went home the first week, didn't he? Just after getting here."

"Who went home?" I asked as I fell into a seat next to them.

"Remus," James said. "But tell us about Evans first."

I sighed. "She's still quite angry. She wouldn't listen to a word I said against Snape. But she'll come around."

"Hopefully before we use up the rest of the dungbombs," James said.

"How many did you get?" I asked curiously.

"Three bags. Dad said I'd need them," James grinned. "But we had to hide them from Mum."

"Then my mum and dad will get along splendidly with yours," I laughed. "Only mine don't really know what a dungbomb is."

"Sadly, my parents won't get along with any of yours," Sirius stated. But he didn't look really sad about it.

"Speaking of parents, what were you saying about Remus and his mum?" I asked after a few moments.

"Oh, yeah," Sirius said. "Remus went home tonight. He told Peter his mum was ill."

"So? You're allowed to do that, right?"

"That's not the point. This is the second time he went home. The first was when school had just started, in the weekend."

"Maybe his mum is really ill," I said.

"Maybe. But it is kinda weird."

"We should get some rest," I said. "We have to do detention tomorrow as well, and there's that Potions essay we got today for Thursday."

Remus came back the next day, looking a little paler than usual. He had three cuts on his face and he was limping. He said his dog attacked him when he went home and then he fell over her.

Classes went on normally, but Lily gave us the cold shoulder the entire week. I managed to convince Mary that Snape was bad news, but Caroline and Alice still refused to take sides.

Friday before lunch we had Transfiguration, where we had progressed from toothpicks and needles to beetles and buttons. James and I managed to get our set done first, and Professor McGonagall gave us five points each because they all matched. At the end of the class, James ran out, leaving half his books, since he had found out that the Gryffindor Quidditch team was holding trials after dinner.

"It's barely even time for lunch yet!" I muttered at Sirius. "And he's not going to be allowed anyway, first years aren't allowed brooms, _and_ the first flying lesson is next week!"

"He already knows how to fly," Sirius reminded me, picking up James's copy of _Beginner's Transfiguration_. We made our way to the door.

"Miss Cooper! A word with you, please!"

I turned back to face Professor McGonagall, who had already moved to the back of her desk.

"I'll be out in a minute," I muttered to Sirius before walking to the front of the class.

"Yes, Professor?"

"Professor Dumbledore would like to speak with you," she said, not looking up from the scroll of parchment she was reading. "Come to my office at four o'clock."

"Er, okay?" I said nervously. "Did I do something wrong?"

She finally looked up at me through her square rimmed glasses, with a hint - just the tiniest hint - of a smile. "Hardly. There is something he wishes to discuss with you."

Her tone indicated that the conversation was over, so I left.

"And she didn't say why?" Sirius asked as we walked to lunch.

"Nope, just that he wanted to discuss something... And she smiled."

"Smiled?" Sirius paused in the act of stepping into the Great Hall.

"Yeah, and she told me Binns is going to sing out his lecture on the origins of music magic on Monday."

"Oh, real funny, Rosebud."

Sirius and I joined James at the Quidditch pitch, where he was staring longingly at the sixth and seventh years practicing for later.

"I really don't see how you can balance on a piece of wood," I said, squinting up at the players.

"You'll see soon. It's the best feeling in the world!" James was grinning manically.

Half hour later, the captain, Penelope Walter, took pity on James, and after making him promise that he actually knew how to fly, lent him her broom. It wasn't five seconds later that James was fifty feet above the ground.

"Woah, that kid can fly!" Penelope raised her hand to block the sun and observe. "Wish I could take first years on the team."

Sirius and I were watching James doing laps of the field. The two other players in the air, Simon Roberts and Alicia Wright, flew down and landed next to us.

"Who is that kid?" Simon asked.

"James Potter," Penelope replied before we could.

"Do you mind if I have a go?" Sirius asked Simon. The three of them turned to him.

"Can you fly like him?" Alicia asked.

"No one can fly like him," Sirius grinned. "He's brilliant. But I _can_ fly."

So a minute later, I was on the ground, craning my neck to watch my best friends fly around the pitch.

"I'm guessing you want a go too?" Penelope glanced at me.

"Oh, not in a million years," I chuckled. "I don't see how you can balance on a broom."

They laughed. "If you're meant to fly, you'll see."

I checked my watch and realised I'd be late for Professor Dumbledore if I didn't leave immediately. Asking Penelope to pass the message to the guys, I left for McGonagall's office. A few minutes later, I was knocking at her door.

The office had 'McGonagall' stamped all over it. Except for three fluffy looking armchairs at the desk. Professor Dumbledore was sitting behind the desk, McGonagall was standing by the fire, and there was another witch I didn't recognise.

"Miss Cooper, please take a seat," Dumbledore gestured to an armchair next to the witch.

"Miss Cooper, this is Miss Matilda Kennigsworth, from the Department of Control of Underage Magic in the Ministry of Magic."

I turned to the witch, who was smiling at me. "How are you, Miss Cooper?"

"Fine," I said.

"You're probably wondering what you are doing here," she said, smiling reassuringly.

"A little."

"Do you know what a Metamorphmagus is?"

"A Meta - what?" I asked, completely flabbergasted.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, making us turn back to him.

"When you were a young child of three, Miss Cooper," he started, making me wonder even more what was going on. "The Ministry was notified of a Metamorphmagus child born to muggles. When the matter was looked into, it was found the girl did actually have Metamorphmagus abilities. Steps were taken to hide this sign of Magic, so the Statute of Secrecy would not be broken. Now, the time has come to reveal those abilities."

I was staring at him. Was he a mad man? Well, probably so. "What is a Metamorphmagus, Sir?"

"A person who can change their appearance at will," he finally explained. "Hair colour, eye colour, other facial features, height, anything."

"And you think this person is me? That I am a Metamorphmagus?" I asked sceptically.

"Yes," the answer came from Kenningsworth. "I myself placed the charm to suppress your morphing capabilities over eight years ago."

I mulled over this. "So why are you telling me this now?"

"I understand that we are a few weeks late, but believe me when I say that your case is extremely rare. A muggleborn Metamorphmagus? I'm fairly sure that's unheard of."

"It is an inherited trait, Miss Cooper, so I suspect that there must have been a witch or wizard in your ancestors, no matter how far, who was a Metamorphmagus."

"No, I meant -" I took a deep breath. "I meant if you suppressed that side of me then what's the point of telling me now?"

Dumbledore smiled. "Now that you have been introduced to the magical world, we can remove the charm. I am sure that by the time you go home for your Christmas holiday, you will have it under control."

"So, I still have the ability to change the way I look?"

"Yes, but only if you remove the charm. Would you like to?"

I considered it for a second. Just a second, because I already knew what I would say since the moment I understood what was going on. It wasn't even a choice, really. "Yes."

Kenningsworth raised her wand and swished it around in a few complicated movements, muttering under her breath.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

"Done," she smiled.

"Oh." That was quick. "Am I supposed to feel any different?"

That made her laugh. "Try concentrating on changing your hair colour. That should be easiest."

Hmmm. New hair colour. I closed my eyes.

A second later, I heard Kenningsworth's sharp intake of breath. I pulled my hair to the front.

Pink. Pink hair.

"Oh my..." I heard myself say. "Did that really happen?"

"Yes," Dumbledore smiled.

I laughed, and my hair turned yellow.

"I didn't want yellow hair," I muttered.

"Hair is the most readily changeable feature. While you get used to this, it may change itself according to your mood. But you may control it with practice," Kenningsworth said.

I nodded, trying to bring back my natural black hair.

"Now, Miss Cooper," Dumbledore said, his expression suddenly serious. "While you may choose to tell your friends about this - it is in fact, your right to decide who knows - I hope that you will not use your newfound talent for activities which may land you - or others - in detention. Do I make myself clear?" His bright blue eyes pierced me over those half moon glasses.

How did he know about that half formed plan to trick people into thinking James was at two places at once? "Yes, Professor."

"Sirius!"

Sirius turned to find me running down the stairs. "Rosebud - hey, slow down!"

"I - have -" I panted heavily, leaning on his shoulder. "- been looking - all over - for you. Where's James? And please, stop calling me that!"

"That is your name, isn't it?" he grinned evilly. "Now, what did Professor Dumbledore want? You can tell me on the way to the Quidditch pitch."

"James is still there?"

"Yeah, the trials just started a few minutes ago, I saw it from the common room window. Come on, we can catch some of it!"

"Wait!" I grabbed his hand to stop him from moving. "I need to show you something first!"

I pulled him into an empty classroom and closed the door.

"What is it?" Sirius was getting impatient.

"Hold on," I said. I closed my eyes to concentrate, like I'd done for the last hour in a stall in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"What, Rosebud?"

"I'm trying, aren't I?" I snapped, but I heard Sirius's sharp intake of breath and opened my eyes.

My hair was red.

I looked at Sirius, who was staring open-mouthed.

"Well, say something!"

He closed his mouth and opened it again. "Uh, what am I supposed to say?"

I grinned. Closing my eyes, I concentrated hard on Sirius's features. Hearing his small yelp of surprise, I knew it had worked.

"Well," I said, trying to mimic his half-grin. "You could say 'That is so brilliant! You're wonderful, Ayesha, and as a reward, I'll never call you Rosebud again!'"

That snapped him out. "I would never say that!" he scoffed. "But we're missing the point! How are you doing that?"

I changed my face back to my own, but I left my hair bright gold. "I'm a Metamorphmagus!"

Sirius looked even more confused.

As we walked out of the castle and to the Quidditch grounds to find James, I managed to answer his questions – whatever I could - and we formulated a plan to prank James.

Making sure that no one was looking, I quickly rearranged my features. I realised that every time, it took less effort to achieve the look I wanted.

We walked onto the pitch, quickly finding James on the stands, hungrily watching the Gryffindor team trials for a new chaser and keeper.

James's eyes popped as we approached him. "Evans?" he sputtered disbelievingly.

"Hello, James," I smiled at him.

"Wha - what are you doing here?"

"Why James, can't I see the Quid - no, I can't do this," I sniggered. Sirius groaned. "I'm sorry, James."

He frowned. "I knew there was something going on. I just can't figure out what it is yet."

Sirius laughed. "Show him, Rosebud."

"Rosebud?" James exclaimed, too loud for my liking.

"Sshh! Not so loud!" I said, looking around to see if anyone noticed. "And we need to go somewhere quiet."

We followed James out of the pitch and the three of us quickly walked around it to the side which wasn't visible from the castle. The side of the pitch generally attracted older students in pairs, we quickly realised. Trying not to make faces at the busy couples, we walked till we found a stretch of unoccupied area.

"Now will you tell me what this is about?" James asked with a note of exasperation in his voice.

"Yes, so please be quiet."

I concentrated on my own face again, and this time, I felt my hair grow a few inches and my face become less round.

When opened my eyes, I found Sirius and James both staring at me.

"What?" I said, looking at the both of them. "Sirius, you just saw this a few minutes ago!"

"I don't think I got used to it," he muttered.

"You're a Metamorphmagus?" James asked.

"How did you know that word?" I said, and in my surprise I felt my hair turn bright purple.

"My Dad had a friend who could do that - I met him once. So you are one?"

"Yes - the Ministry just realised that I should know," I said, trying to concentrate on one hair colour. I managed a deep brown, close to my own black.

"So why do you want to keep this a secret?" James asked.

"Not secret, per se," I said carefully. "I just don't want _everyone_ to know. Let me get used to it myself first."

"This is going to be an awesome skill for pranking -"

"Don't even think about it, Sirius!" I said sharply. My hair turned reddish again. "Professor Dumbledore warned me."

"You're no fun," Sirius grumbled, but then brightened at some thought as I brought my hair back to black. "Can we call you Rainbow?"

"No! I told you, I don't want everyone to know!"

"Do you know that you've still got Evans's eyes?"

I groaned.

 **Minerva McGonagall**

"... seemed happy. If she feels any discomfort, do let me know."

"Of course, Matilda. I shall be in touch."

"You continue to surprise me, Albus," I said, after Kenningsworth had left.

"That has never been my intention, Minerva," Albus chuckled, like only he could. "What did I do this time?"

"A muggleborn Metamorphmagus. Surely this is big enough to warrant the Ministry's presence. Kenningsworth may have been from the Minstry, but she wasn't representing it, neither was any document read out from the time the suppressing charm had been placed. What is going on, Albus?"

"Minerva, from the short time that she's been here, what have you been able to gather from young Ayesha?"

I barely had to think. "She's exceptionally gifted, and not only at Transfiguration. I was chatting with Filius and Horace the other day, they say she's remarkable in their classes as well. The other professors agree that she's hardworking, and she helps other students. I also think she will be landing up in detention more time than we can count, with her friends."

Albus chuckled again. "She is certainly not your average witch, Minerva. The child is destined for great things." He sighed. "I received a letter a few days into the school year – from a witch who lives near Ayesha's family. She was the one who had alerted the Ministry of Ayesha's case in the first place. But then," his face darkened, "Voldemort and his ideals were spreading. So the old witch, terrified for the life of this young, talented witch, broke into the Ministry and removed her records."

I let out a long breath. "That's a crime, Albus."

"Considering the circumstances, I thought it would be wise not to alert Minister Bagnold of this situation."

"What is going to happen when the news spreads?"

"I'm sure Miss Cooper is going to be discrete – she won't be yelling from the top of the astronomy tower, at least I hope not," he chuckled.

"This isn't a joke, Albus!"

"Relax, Minerva," he said in that infuriatingly calm voice. "If and when the time comes to let Millicent know, I will handle it. Meanwhile, we need to keep an eye on young Miss Cooper and her friends."

I had a feeling that wasn't going to be as easy as it seemed.


	5. The First Time on a Broom

"But where exactly are we going?" I asked James.

"You'll see! Come on, Rosebud!"

I sighed. It was tough to get anything out of James when he put his mind to it. He'd cornered me in the Owlery, where I'd just sent Bonnie off with my weekly letter home. As soon as we were out of the building he grabbed my hand and started running, pulling me along behind him, not considering the fact that I had _Hogwarts, A History_ in my hand.

"For Merlin's sake, will you tell -" I suddenly caught sight of what was ahead. "Why are we going to the Quidditch pitch, James?"

"You'll see!" I could hear the grin in his voice.

I slowed down visibly. The Quidditch pitch was a place I never wanted to step foot in ever again. Last Thursday was our first flying lesson – needless to say it went badly.

The day was going perfectly well – I made a dozen buttons out of beetles in Transfiguration, Potions went well, and we didn't get assigned any work for the weekend and the pot roast at lunch reminded me of Mum's. Then we came out to the pitch (James was literally bouncing) and started the lesson. It was all fine until I kicked off the ground – next to me, James and Sirius were already in the air. As soon as I was two feet in the air, the broom zoomed away from beneath me and I hit the ground with a giant thud, flat on my face.

"I am not getting on a broom again!" I hissed. I saw my hair turn red and I'm pretty sure my eyes flashed as well, since James let go of my hand.

"Okay, listen, that broom was faulty – it's a miracle you let go, otherwise you'd have been on it when it went mad."

"You're saying it's a good thing I fell flat on my face?" I asked disbelievingly.

"Yes!" James insisted. "You could have been seriously hurt! And just because the first time went badly, doesn't mean you should give up. Everyone should learn how to fly. It's one of the great joys of the world," he said, a look of serenity on his face.

"Like you know all about the joys of life at age eleven."

"Those were my dad's words," he smiled. I hadn't realised but he'd steered me into the pitch, where Sirius was waiting with a reluctant looking Remus and Peter.

"Did they rope you in as well?" Remus asked of me. I nodded sadly.

"I've learnt not to underestimate the powers of persuasion of these two. Only two days back I vowed I'd never step onto the pitch ever again."

"Well, after our lessons, you'll never want to get off a broom ever again!" Sirius said.

"I find that highly unlikely," Remus said flatly. He himself got hit on the head with his own broom before he even mounted it, while Peter did fairly well. "How are you going to give us lessons? On those rickety old school brooms again? I am not getting on one."

"Neither am I."

"Why do you guys worry so much?" James asked. "We've got everything worked out to the T! Look over there." He pointed a few feet away, where the Gryffindor changing rooms were located. The door was unlocked.

"I talked to Penelope, so she and the rest of the team left their brooms here for us. We have an hour before they start practice."

So we went and got ourselves game quality brooms and James and Sirius showed us how to get on them. They kicked off themselves, slowly, to show us how to do it.

"You see? All you need to do is give yourself an upwards boost," James said, hovering at eye level. "It's perfectly safe. Come on, give it a try!"

Remus was still shaking his head as I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. _Are you a Gryffindor or not?_

And suddenly my feet were not on the ground anymore. I looked down in panic – I was four feet above the ground.

"Umm, guys?" I was shocked to hear my voice so squeaky.

"I'm right next to you," James assured me. I threw a sideways glance – he was smiling. "You're doing well. Now, lean forward just a little to move. Hold on tight!"

I leaned forward as he instructed, and started moving slowly. This wasn't half bad. I wanted to move faster, so I leaned even further, and shot away.

"Woah!" I skidded to a stop when I straightened. James zoomed up to me, grinning wildly.

"That was awesome! I didn't tell you how to stop, you did it yourself!"

"I dunno how I knew, I just did it!"

"Wanna go higher?" James raised his eyebrows a while later after he showed me how to turn and fly in a circle.

"Uh, okay?"

So over the next ten minutes James slowly convinced me to go higher and higher until we were in the same level as the tallest hoop.

"This is amazing!" I exclaimed looking down, where Peter was finding it difficult to fly ten feet off the ground and Remus had already given up and was sitting with his head in a book. My heart was pounding away as I took in the sight of the entire pitch, the castle beyond it, the gamekeeper's hut a tiny speck in the distance.

"You want to fly around the pitch? There's an amazing view of the Lake from the other side," James said.

So we flew around the pitch, not just once but five times before Sirius joined us. The Great Lake, it seemed, was appropriately named. The serenity of it all caught my breath every time I passed it.

"Looks like Rosebud is the only one who likes our lessons, James," Sirius sighed.

"That's because I was teaching her," James smirked. That made Sirius fly after James, leaving me alone in the middle of the pitch. I followed them, not wanting to be left behind just in case, catching up quickly.

They stopped abruptly, making me shoot forward a few feet before I skidded to a halt and turned to see their open mouths. "What's up?"

"That was some acceleration!" Sirius said.

"What, me?"

"Yeah, you!" James said. He thought for a moment before he said, "Race with me."

"Race with you?" I asked incredulously. "I don't think so."

"You just flew on your own. It's not that hard!"

"Yeah, but you're… you. How can I race with you when I've been on a broom a total of thirty minutes?"

"She's right, James," Sirius said. "Give her a few days to get more comfortable."

So we landed on the pitch with a slightly pouting James five minutes later when the Gryffindor team turned up for their practice.

"So – Ayesha, was it? – do you see now how you can balance on a broom? How was it?" Penelope asked.

I looked at James and Sirius before grinning. "Exhilarating."

The Halloween feast at Hogwarts was unparalleled. Even though there was no trick or treating at the school, the food pretty much made up for it. Giant pumpkins littered the Hall and the grounds for days, and some were even hollowed out; five first years could curl up comfortably inside one for a few hours, which led to us meeting Hagrid, the gamekeeper, when he found us there after curfew and took us up to the tower so we wouldn't get into trouble.

He invited us to tea the weekend after Halloween and we learnt an important lesson – never to turn up with an empty stomach at Hagrid's.

The next day, we decided to stay in after classes, since Remus looked quite unwell – "Maybe it was those rocky rock cakes from yesterday," Sirius reasoned. He said he'd received news of his mother's health worsening and had to leave for the night. So after dinner, while James, Sirius, Peter and I set up a table (as close as possible to the roaring fire as the older students would let us) to finish the Charms assignment, Remus went upstairs to pack a bag.

"So, Rosebud, how exactly did you get the feather flying so fast?"

"James, for the millionth time, I don't know! It just happened, okay?" It was just then that Lily, Alice and Mary decided to walk past us. Lily hardly even looked our way, but Alice and Mary smiled sadly at me.

"Lily's still not talking to you?" Peter asked.

"No, and the others are taking her side, so I don't really have anyone to talk to in the dorm…" I trailed off, staring into the distance. It wasn't like taking sides really. Lily wouldn't talk to me, so she'd talk to Alice; Mary and Caroline would simply join them for homework and continue the conversations till late at night. Me, on the other hand, I'd spend time outside the dorm with the guys, so I'd automatically be excluded.

I saw James and Sirius exchange a look. "You know, we can spend as long as you want out here in the common room," Sirius said.

"All the way up to midnight, because that's when Sirius starts to babble about sleep."

"I do not!"

"Do too!" James and Peter shot back.

"Thanks guys," I said over Sirius. "That means a lot."

"Hey guys," Remus said, walking towards us from the dorms with a rucksack over his shoulder. "I'm leaving now."

"Hope your mum feels better!"

"See ya later, then."

I just smiled at him. "Don't trip on your dog again."

James, Sirius and Peter laughed, but I could see Remus's eyes tightening before he smiled - or tried to.

"I'll watch out for him."

He left and we sighed together and started with our homework.

"Guys," Remus came up behind us.

Sirius yelped. "We've been doing this assignment for the whole night! Remus is already back and we haven't written five words!"

"Wonderful observational skills, Sirius," Remus said sarcastically. "It's been exactly fifty seconds. James, could you keep this in my desk for me?" He held something out in his hand.

"But, you never take this off!" James said, taking it from him.

"I'll explain later," Remus called over his shoulder, already running back out the portrait hole.

"That was weird," Peter said after a moment.

"I'll say," James said. "And his chain is even more so." He was peering at a locket on the chain. I'd noticed Remus wearing it before but never thought to ask him about it.

"How so?" I frowned.

"This is a ring," he said slowly. "With an inscription."

"What does it say?" Sirius sat up, excited. Before James could reply, Sirius snagged the ring.

"Hey!"

"You're taking too long," he muttered. "It says _Forever, S_." He looked up. "Looks like Remus has a childhood sweetheart!"

James and Peter laughed, causing me - and half the common room - to stare at them.

"It's not funny, it's sweet!"

"Yeah, right!"

"Anyway," I said, rolling my eyes. "Lemme see it."

Sirius handed it over.

The ring was made of white metal. The words were inscribed in neat cursive letters.

Something about this seemed familiar, but what?

"He never talks about any _S_ ," James was saying.

"And there's no girl who's name starts with _S_ in our year," Sirius said thoughtfully.

"Who said it's a witch? Or even a girl?" Peter countered. "It could be Sirius. His name starts with an _S_."

James and I stared at him, and then looked at Sirius. He was gaping, like Peter had just said Snivellus was washing his hair.

"It most certainly is not me!" he said indignantly. "I, for one, have never - "

"Relax mate," James was trying to smother a laugh. "We know it's not you."

"Thank Merlin."

"Or, it could be Snivellus," James said seriously, before we all started laughing.

"Okay, no more guessing. Can you tell how old it is, Rosebud?"

"And how should I do that?" I asked.

"Well," James back-tracked. "Your mum is a jewellery shop owner..."

"So?"

"And you wear that charm bracelet all the time, and it looks like it's got some ancient ones…"

"They're not ancient!"

"Okay," he murmured.

I turned the ring around in my hand. Why was this so familiar?

The chain caught around a charm in my bracelet, which was – contrary to what I told James – quite old. The bracelet had been with me since my sixth birthday, and I had started adding charms with Isabelle's help ever since. I even had one of a castle, a gift from her before I started Hogwarts. My whole life – all eleven and three quarter years of it - was symbolised on this tiny little thing.

I disentangled the chain from the charm - a small heart, which opened so you could keep photographs inside. The outside had the word 'Mine' inscribed on it.

"No... It can't be."

I opened the latch to the charm, revealing a picture of a small boy and girl on one side. The other side contained a paper, with the letter 'R'.

"Rosebud?"

I looked up. All three of them were staring at me, concerned. They had probably called my name more than once.

"You ok? Or just dreaming again?"

"Yeah, just thinking."

They nodded. Sirius smirked.

We put Remus's locket aside and upon finishing our assignment, we realised there was nothing else to do and it was past eleven already.

"I'm going to bed," I announced.

"Okay," James said. "Tonight is officially the most boring night in the history of Hogwarts."

"How would you know? You never pay attention in History of Magic!" I asked.

The boys groaned in unison.

When I went up to the dorm, everybody else was already asleep. I quietly creeped into my bed and pulled the curtains around me.

"Lumos," I whispered.

In the faint light of my wand, I opened the heart shaped charm again. The picture in it showed a girl, around four years old, with blue eyes and short black hair. That was me.

With me was a boy with sandy hair. His blue eyes were full of laughter.

I looked back at the ring again. Could it be the same?

No... Of course not.

I fell asleep with the ring in my hand.

 _"Rez! I found you!"_

 _The little boy groaned. He was hiding behind a tree, which was unfortunately not wide enough._

 _The girl was laughing and pointing at him, having spotted him._

 _"I win! I win!"_

 _"Fine! But you have to catch me first!"_

 _The boy ran back to the house, leaving the girl stumped for a second._

 _"Hey no fair!" she yelled as she ran after him._

 _"Fair!" He'd reached the door, and turned around to grin at her._

 _"No fair!"_

 _"Fair!"_

 _"No fair!"_

 _"Fair!"_

 _"No fair!"_

 _"No fair!"_

 _"Fair!"_

 _"Aha! It's fair!" the boy broke into a dance._

 _The girl's mouth opened in disbelief, and she turned around. She walked back to the little gate and crossed the fence._

 _"Shaz!" the boy ran after her. Being faster, he caught her quickly. "Shaz! You can have my chocolate!"_

 _She smiled. "Okay."_

 _"Wanna play again?"_

 _"Yeah!"_

 _"Kids! Dinner time!"_

 _The two kids looked at each other. They were climbing a tree, the boy on a higher branch than the girl. She smiled and made her way down quickly._

 _"Last one there's a rotten egg, Rez!"_

 _"No fair, Shaz! You're supposed to wait for me!"_

 _Rez jumped after her, running quickly to overcome the distance._

 _"Yay! I won!"_

 _Rez grumbled._

 _They walked into the kitchen, where Rez's mum was setting the table. She looked at the children._

 _"Who won today?"_

 _"Me!" Shaz said happily._

 _The elder woman smiled. Once the kids were seated, another woman came into the kitchen, carrying a large dish._

 _"El, just put that here."_

 _"Thanks, Hope," El replied, placing the dish at the centre of the table._

 _The four ate lunch together. The kids were laughing, the previous argument apparently forgotten. The women, best friends as they were, chatted about everything, starting from their jobs to their husbands. When they turned to the kids, amazed that they were silent for so long, they found them sleeping at the table._

 _"Mum! When are we going home?"_

 _Shaz was bored. Her parents had taken her to visit her grandmother, and even though Shaz loved her Nana, she wanted to go back, so she could play with Rez._

 _"We're leaving tomorrow, Ayesha."_

 _"Rez!"_

 _Shaz ran out of the car, not towards her own home, but the one next to it. She ran the doorbell, and waited._

 _And waited._

 _And waited._

 _Puzzled, she rang it again, fiercely. And again._

 _When she didn't get a response, she cried out, running back up the path and into her own house. She flew through the rooms, out the kitchen into the backyard. She crossed the fence, went to the kitchen door, trying to let herself in. When it didn't open, she knocked._

 _"Rez! Open the door!"_

 _Her mom came out, looking at the little girl. She went to her and picked her up._

 _"Sweetie... They've probably gone out..."_

 _"But Rez knew I was coming today!" She had started crying._

 _"They'll be back, Ayesha..."_

 _"I'm sorry I can't explain, Sam, Eliza... But this has all been sudden and necessary..."_

 _Shaz woke up. She had refused to move from her place near the window, where she could see exactly when Rez would come back. She had fallen asleep after a few hours, but was now awoken by a new voice._

 _She sat up, rubbing her eyes. Her mum and dad were there, looking upset. And beside them... was Rez's dad._

 _"Mr. L! Where's Rez!"_

 _He looked at her unhappily, not wanting to say the words which followed. "I'm sorry, Ayesha... He's not coming back."_

 _"What? Why?"_

 _"We had to move away... It's a long way from here..."_

 _"But then Rez can stay with us!"_

 _"I'm sorry, honey, it's not possible."_

 _Ayesha had cried for the past hour. She couldn't believe she wouldn't see her friend anymore. His dad was leaving in a few minutes, to wherever Rez was now._

 _"Mr. L... Will you give Rez something?"_

 _He looked at the little girl. "Of course, Ayesha... Anything."_

 _"Mum, can I have one of those rings?"_

 _Her mum knew which rings Ayesha was talking about, and she brought them down. Ayesha picked out a small ring, which had the word 'Forever' written on it. "Tell him I'll always remember him," she said, handing over the ring._

 _He took the ring, and took out a picture from his pocket._

 _"You can keep this, Ayesha."_

 _The picture was of them playing in the backyard, in the shade of the apple tree._

I woke up shaking, drenched in sweat.

"Remus."


	6. Childhood Memories

**A/N: Hey guys! Hope you are enjoying this story! Let me know what you think of it. I might do a time jump into fourth year after a few chapters – thoughts?**

It was half past seven.

The other girls had been awake for a while, they were just going down to get breakfast. I, on the other hand, hadn't bothered moving from below the sheets, much less getting dressed. Alice and Mary had tried to get me to move for the last fifteen minutes, without success. They were finally leaving.

"Mary... Just tell the guys I'm running late, I'll meet them in class."

She looked at me wearily. "Fine," she said. "If you don't get up soon, you'll be late for class as well!"

When she closed the door, I was finally alone. I pulled out the chain again and stared at the ring.

"'Forever, S'," I murmured.

It seemed so much like the same ring. But that ring didn't have 'S' inscribed on it. Still, it could have been done later.

I then opened the clasp to my heart charm. It was one of my first charms. I'd persuaded my dad to get a miniature copy of the picture I had to put into the charm.

'Mine'. I had picked the charm because I could put the picture and the little note in it. I had promised myself I wouldn't forget the little sandy haired boy I spent the first five years of my life with.

But I had. The charm was forgotten until now, lost under a multitude of others. I'd forgotten him, and failed to recognise him when he was in front of me. And now he wasn't even here to satisfy my undying curiosity – if it was actually him.

I got out of bed after a few minutes, and rushed to get ready for class.

When I got to History of Magic, the rest of the class was already there. James was holding a stack of toast.

"Here," he them over.

"Fanks," I said, already stuffing them into my mouth two at a time. The guys smirked.

"Do you have Remus's chain? He'll kill us if we lose it," Sirius said.

I raised my left hand. It was next to my charm bracelet, wound around my wrist twice.

"I won't lose it."

"Good," James smirked. "Now we're not responsible."

Thankfully the class was History of Magic, because I could barely pay attention for a few seconds at a time.

"What's up, Rosebud?" Sirius asked when we left the class.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been acting weird all day," Peter said. "Late for breakfast, not taking notes!"

"Yeah, who do we go to for History of Magic notes now?"

I rolled my eyes. "Get your own notes, James."

"What about Remus? He relies on your notes!"

I hesitated. "I'm sure he won't mind using Lily's notes just this once," I said. "I need them myself, and she won't say no if he asks for them."

This was going to be a very long day.

I threw my bag on the bed. We had Herbology at the end of classes, so the boys and I decided to eat dinner with our bags rather than run up and down again. That, and Peter smelled cheese.

Picking up my pajamas and fuzzy socks, I headed for the bathroom and got dressed, all the while wondering whether Remus would return tonight or the next morning. I didn't think I could take the suspense any longer. Either he would be the little boy from my past, or he wouldn't. And I was pretty sure he was.

Or not.

I opened the door to the bathroom and ran straight into Lily.

"Oops, sorry, I didn't see you there!" Lily said, moving aside.

"You don't need to apologise, Lily, relax," I said, moving toward my bed and dumping my clothes into my wardrobe. Lily came out with her hairbrush and opened hers. A paper fell out, though Lily didn't seem to have noticed.

"You dropped something," I said, picking it up. It was a photograph, of a six or seven year-old redhead with another girl, maybe ten. She was thin, but not unhealthy, and the shape of her face was oddly familiar. They were standing in front of a cottage, laughing.

"Thanks," Lily took it from my hand. She didn't look at it and put it back in the wardrobe.

"Was that your sister?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, after a moment of hesitation. "Petunia."

"Is it odd that we've been living in the same room for almost four months and we don't know the first thing about each other's lives?"

"Not when you consider that you've been hanging out with the boys most of those four months."

"Come on, Lily, that's not fair and you know it. Let's put that behind us. Tell me something about your sister and I'll tell you something about mine."

Lily looked at me for a long time, carefully assessing me. I held my ground. Finally, she let out a long breath. "Like what?"

I tried to keep a straight face, but on the inside, I was dancing. "Ummm… Isabelle is eight years older than me, but we're really close. We do everything together. She calls me Bunny because apparently she thought I was one when she first saw me," I smiled at the thought.

Lily's eyes widened. "Is she a witch?"

"No… Strange how that happens, isn't it?"

"Yeah… Petunia isn't a witch either. And she hates me for it."

I stared at her. "Of course she doesn't, Lily. How can your own sister hate you?"

"She does." Lily sat down on her bed and wrapped her hands around herself, looking desolate. "She resents me because she isn't a witch. She wanted to be one too, when we found out, and she realised she couldn't, so she decided I was a freak."

I sat down next to her and put an arm around her. "She'll come around, you'll see. When you go back for Christmas, the two of you can sit and talk and everything will be okay."

"I hope so."

I plopped down on the couch next to James. "Couldn't you get better spots?" We were in one of the corners – it was secluded, but really far away from the fireplace.

"The fifth years are having some sort of study marathon. I hope they finish soon," Sirius stared at the fire – and his beloved armchair – wistfully.

"That's highly unlikely," Peter provided. "They have snacks and all their books and they're studying for a Transfiguration exam. It's in two days."

James and Sirius sighed in unison. "Anyway, what's going on with you, Rosebud? You took a while," Sirius said.

"I was talking with Lily, and I waited until Alice and Mary came up to the dorm so she wouldn't be alone."

James, who was just taking a sip of water, almost choked. "You were talking to Lily? And she was talking back?"

"Gee, guys, be more surprised," I said, sarcasm dripping from each word.

"Go on, Rosebud," Peter said, bumping James on the back.

"We just started talking about our life at home… you know, sisters and stuff… and we found that we actually enjoy talking to each other so we made a truce. Raised the metaphorical white flags, one might say."

"What was the truce?" James said, finally putting the bottle down and realising half his essay was covered in water.

"Well, I promised to be more considerate about the fact that Snape is her friend and she promised to be more considerate about the fact that you guys are mine."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius asked, finally opening _Standard Book of Spells, Grade I_.

"I won't keep telling her what a bad person Snape is, make sure you guys don't attack him; and she stops ignoring on the basis that I spend most of my time with you."

I pulled out the Charms book and started on my essay before they spoke again.

"Err, Rosebud, can you see how that truce is completely one sided?" James asked.

"How so?" I asked, not looking up from my essay.

"Well, it just asks Evans to do something she should have been doing anyway," Sirius explained, "while you have to actively stop badmouthing Snape, even when he's in the wrong."

"So?"

"It's a bit unfair, don't you think?" Peter said, one eyebrow raised.

I stared at the three of them. "Lily spoke to me for the first time in a month. I took what I got, okay?"

"Fine," James said, raising his hands in defeat. "Just remember, if Snape does something bad, we won't be dissuaded from retaliating. We didn't agree to any truce."

Not wanting to get into an argument, I just turned back to the essay, and so did the boys.

"Hey guys."

It was late that night, after curfew. But Peter insisted that Remus was supposed to return today, and so we stayed up, until he did turn up. Remus flopped onto an armchair opposite me. He looked tired.

My stomach did an odd sort of flop at his sight. I looked over him carefully. The eyes were the same, yet different – tired, heavy from carrying secrets from the world. The face was the same, yet older. His entire being looked exhausted, yet eager to join in whatever was going on.

All the nervousness I had since last night evaporated at his sight as I knew, somewhere inside me, that Remus was indeed my Rez. I just had to make him see that the Ayesha in front him was his Shaz.

"How's your mum?" James asked.

"Better," Remus replied. "But they still don't know what exactly is wrong."

There was an odd silence.

"I see you managed to avoid your dog this time," Sirius observed.

Remus smiled. "Yeah, that was probably because Dad kept her outside most of the time."

"Here, Remus," I gave him his chain.

"Thanks," he said, promptly putting it on. Then he looked at James. "Wasn't this supposed to go in my desk?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

James just smiled. "When do I ever do things that I'm told to?"

"When McGonagall tells you to do your homework?" I said.

"When McGonagall tells you you've got detention?" Remus added.

"When McGona - "

"Alright! I get it! McGonagall is a scary woman, okay?"

"You never told us the story of the ring, Remus," Sirius smirked, in an attempt to save James from his misery.

"Or 'S', whoever that is," James grinned, recovering quickly.

I observed Remus carefully. He had turned red and was avoiding everyone's eyes.

"Well..."

"Oh tell us, we won't laugh," Peter encouraged.

"Speak for yourself," James muttered front next to me. I jabbed his ribs.

"Fine," Remus said, taking a deep breath. "I had a friend - a best friend."

"We kinda figured that out," Sirius pointed out. "Muggle, witch, wizard...?"

"Muggle," he said. Okay, that was true at age five. "We were neighbours. Our mums were best friends, and we did everything together - eating, playing, everything. But when I was four, I moved away. She was on vacation then, and I never saw her again, but Dad went back to collect a few things and close the Floo network. She'd given him the ring to give to me."

The others oooohed. I remained silent. The story was the same, till now.

"So what's her name?"

"I'll only tell you her name, Sirius," Remus was rolling his eyes. "because you won't ever find her, even if you try looking for her. I don't remember her real name."

"Huh?"

"We were kids!" Remus said. "We had nicknames... I never called her by her real name."

"But then... Her real name doesn't even start with S?"

"No. I don't think so."

"What did you call her?" Peter asked.

"Shaz."

I gasped quietly. No one noticed.

This was it. I was right. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"And what did she call you?" Sirius asked, leaning in like Remus was telling him how Hagrid had grown such gigantic pumpkins for Halloween.

Before Remus opened his mouth, the answer fell out of my mouth.

"Rez."

The four boys turned to look at me, looks of confusion, surprise and incredulity on them.

"How... how do you know that?" Remus asked me.

I looked into his eyes. "I didn't. Even when I saw the ring. But..."

He was standing, and so was I. I looked down, opening the clasp to the heart charm once again.

"Tell me that isn't you, Rez," I whispered, holding up my wrist so that the picture faced him.

He reached for my wrist, still looking at me, eyes wide. Looking at the picture, his eyes got possibly even wider. He looked up at me again.

"Shaz?" his voice was trembling.

I nodded.

"It really is you," he whispered.

"I can't believe it either," I said.

He pulled me into a hug, and I hugged him back like there was no tomorrow. We were laughing and crying at the same time.

"Ahem..."

Oh, Merlin!

We pulled back, looking around. Sirius and James were smirking, and Peter was looking confused.

"If one of you would be kind enough to explain," Sirius said.

"We would love to leave the two of you alone after that," James finished.

Remus and I looked at each other. Nothing could spoil our mood, not even their lame jokes. We laughed again, causing more confusion.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius moaned.

"Okay, okay!" I said, giggling as I sat down. Remus didn't go back to his armchair, instead he pushed James off the couch to sit next to me. He kept a hold on my hand.

"That was unnecessary," James grumbled from the floor, jumping up to sit on the armchair. "But tell us what's going on!"

"Honestly, for someone so bright, I can't believe you didn't figure it out!" Remus said, causing me to go into another round of laughs.

"I'm the girl Rez has been talking about," I said, once I controlled myself.

"Rez?"

"Yep. Nicknames, y'know."

"But didn't you just say that girl was a muggle?" Peter asked Remus.

"I didn't know I was a witch then, did I?" I answered.

"But why didn't you recognise each other when we first got here?" James asked.

"We were four when we last saw each other," Remus pointed out. "And the names didn't strike us either."

"So that's why you've been acting weird since you saw the ring?" Sirius asked.

Boy, was he observative when he wanted to be.

"You figured it out last night?" Remus turned to me.

"I didn't," I said. "The ring felt familiar, but I couldn't place it. When I fell asleep, I dreamt about you, and I remembered. But," I added. "The ring I gave your dad, it had only 'Forever' written on it. No 'S'..."

"I asked my dad to put it there," Remus smiled. "It was easy, with a wand."

"You knew you were a wizard," I accused.

"You know I couldn't tell you!" Remus looked appalled.

"You kept a secret from me," I shook my head in mock anger, barely keeping my smile in check.

"Shaz! The Statute of Secrecy! I couldn't - "

"Remus," Sirius cut off his hurried explanations. "Can't you see she's laughing her head off?"

Remus looked back at me. When I saw his face, I couldn't help myself. I laughed out loud, clutching my sides, and fell off the couch.

"I'm sorry," I breathed when I got a hold on myself. "Couldn't help myself."

Remus was still staring at me, mouth wide. He suddenly shut his mouth and narrowed his eyes.

"What?" I said. He looked away and crossed his arms. "It was a joke!"

He still didn't look my way. I sat up. "Rez? I'll give you my chocolate!"

He looked at me then. He was laughing.

"You fell for your own prank!" Sirius yelled, pointing at me. "And you lost chocolate in the process!"

Remus and I looked at him, then at each other, and then burst into laughs once again.

"Now what?" James said. By the sound of his voice, I could tell he was annoyed.

"Shaz never loses chocolate," Remus chuckled.

"I always managed to get his chocolate at the end of the day," I said, sitting on the couch again. "I was determined, since he had the best... Hang on... You used to give me chocolate frogs!"

"After getting the charm removed!"

"They're not as yummy," I pouted.

"I know."

 **Remus Lupin**

Turning off the shower, I quickly dried off and put on a pair of pajama pants and a shirt, just in case Sirius decided to barge in. Again. The scar on my rib cage would be much harder to explain this time.

I opened the door leading in to the dorm – and just in time, apparently – Sirius rushed past me as soon as I was clear of the doorway. James, who had a letter in his hand, looked up and groaned.

"Sirius! You can't beat me forever!"

"I bet he can," I smirked.

"Shut up, Remmy." James threw a rolled-up parchment at my head, which I caught with ease. "You see, you'd be the best chaser in the world – only if you learnt how to fly," he sighed.

"If I was inclined towards sports, James, I'd play cricket."

"Cricket? The insect?"

"Can you guys keep it down?" Johnathan called from his bed, sounding annoyed.

"Never mind," I said, sitting on my bed carefully to avoid applying pressure on my sore back. I pulled out a quill, some ink and parchment from my bedside desk to write home.

 _Mum, Dad,_

 _I'm okay. Not too much pain tonight._

I paused, not really feeling like writing much else. I set the letter aside and pulled the curtains around the bed.

"I'm calling it a night, guys," I said to no one in particular. "Too long a journey."

A few 'good night's were murmured around and I fell back on to my pillows, finally letting myself think about the day's events.

The one which occupied my foremost thoughts: Ayesha.

How I didn't recognise her, I will never know. Probably because it was the last place I expected her to be. I always dreamt of finding her someday and reminding her of the good times we had. But those dreams would always be marred by one thing: I didn't know what she thought of me because I never said goodbye.

But now she was here, and I couldn't be happier about it. I hadn't known she was a Metamorphmagus then, but knowing what had happened, it made sense.

Now I'd have to find a new excuse for full moons – surely Mum and Dad would meet Ayesha's parents and old friendships would be rekindled. Ayesha would know Mum wasn't sick all the time… in fact… she'd want to know why we left in such a hurry… and the answer would have to convince Mr. and Mrs. Cooper as well… I was pretty certain _I_ was the reason we left, but we couldn't really say that.

We'd agreed to surprise our parents with the news, but some things, I decided, as I reached for the letter again, were best not left to chance.

 _Something happened today, unrelated to my condition, and you need to be prepared to answer some questions. About why we moved from Surrey when I was four. The answers should convince anyone – even someone who knew us back then. I'm going to avoid the questions by saying I don't know why we moved, but I'll need to know at some point. I'm not going to say much more – but you're free to guess why we need these answers._

I smiled as I wrote the last line. After all, what was life without just a bit of chance?


	7. December Days

The weeks before Christmas passed quickly.

I put out a few fires between Snape and our little gang in honour of the truce, in turn Lily tolerated James and Sirius goofing around in the common room. Most of the time.

Remus decided to sit next to me in every class, which started the whole topic of 'who sits next to whom in class' so there would be a perpetual scuffle to the seats, and the loser got to sit with Johnathan. That was mostly Peter, but we made sure to switch every few days.

We all got more detentions, for sneaking around after the first year curfew, but we decided it was worth it, since we found the kitchens. The house elves were kind enough to cater to our every whim at any time of the day. And they had hot chocolate.

James kept pestering me to go out and fly with him but whenever we did get to the pitch, there was some or the other team practice going on, which left him in a very bad mood for the rest of the day.

Remus left to see his mother again at the beginning of December, after promising to keep our meeting a secret. I worried about the illness Mrs. Lupin had, since I certainly didn't remember that there was ever anything wrong with her.

I found out that I was pretty good at magic - especially at Transfiguration, Charms and Potions. Professor McGonagall thought my Transfiguration prowess came naturally due to me being a Metamorphmagus; since I could transfigure myself it was easy to do it on other objects. James and I would always be the first to get a spell right, and we would earn the points that Gryffindor managed to lose – due to Sirius and James's antics – by the end of the class. Charms was my strong suit, I'd taken a liking to them, as had Lily. And the ability to follow instructions from a book came handy in Potions, unlike Sirius and Peter, who would just plop the ingredients into the cauldron and burn them.

With December came the cold, and by the time my birthday rolled around on the 11th, Hogwarts was covered in a blanket of snow. I woke up with a cheerful mood, dancing around the dorm and waking up everybody else before skipping down the stairs and running into James, Sirius and Remus.

"Happy Birthday Rosebud!" Sirius pulled me into a hug and twirled me around.

I laughed. "But I never told you guys!"

"I remembered," Remus said, pushing aside James and giving me a tight hug. "Exactly two weeks before Christmas."

"And yours is in March... The tenth?"

"It is."

"Hey Ayesha... Happy birthday!" Peter smiled, coming down the stairs.

"Thanks Peter!"

"Not to sound like a guy who's starving, but can we go get breakfast?" James interrupted. "We can do birthday wishes on the way down."

So we went down to breakfast, where James insisted I wear pink hair and Sirius snatched every chocolate covered product in a five metre radius and put it in front of me.

"I appreciate the chocolate, Sirius, but I can't possibly eat all that!" I said, pulling my red hair into a ponytail - I refused to make it pink.

"Don't worry... I can finish it - look, cupcakes for breakfast!" And he jumped on the table. "Looks like the elves know it's your birthday!"

"That's a muffin, Sirius."

And that was the mood that carried over the rest of the day - James, Sirius and Peter got detentions for causing a riot in Potions, but for the next three nights instead of the one night, since it was 'Rosebud's birthday'.

After dinner they secured a chocolate cake big enough to cover one of the tables in the corner of the common room and held a mini party, with the rest of the first year Gryffindors, except Johnathan, who thought we were crazy.

Lily, Alice, Mary and Caroline had spent lunch making a card, which Lily had charmed to change colours every few minutes. It included a picture that I had taken a few nights back; all of us were in our fluffy pyjamas and eating chocolate.

After the girls went upstairs, the boys told me to wait for them and ran up to their dorm, leaving me with Peter.

"What are they doing, Pete?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure."

James and Sirius came running back down, with Remus following at a steadier rate.

"I'm not cleaning that up," Remus announced as he sat down.

"Cleaning what up?"

"Sirius made a mess of his trunk and basically coated the whole room with a layer of his stuff."

"Forget about that and just give her your present, Remus."

"You guys got me presents?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Of course," Remus laughed, giving me a small package. I ripped open the wrapping to find a single immobile chocolate frog. A short 'ha!' of amusement escaped my lips.

"This is brilliant!" I picked up the frog and nibbled on a foot.

"Did you kill it?" James whispered.

"No," Remus laughed. "I just removed the charm."

"But that's just… wrong."

"Don't fret, Jamesie, he used to do it all the time," I said, with a mouthful of frog head.

James just shook his head. "After that really disturbing present, -"

"Wait! I have something else!" Remus said, before passing another neatly wrapped package, which turned out to be a bar of Honeydukes' best chocolate. "That's from Peter and me." I smiled as I got up to hug them both.

"Open ours, Rosebud!" Sirius was jumping like a little girl. I sighed as I sat down and ripped the wrapping, which indicated that it was from both James and Sirius.

"What's this?" I asked, holding up the vial to observe the thick blue-green liquid.

"It's a potion," James said. I rolled my eyes. "If you use it in your camera, then your photographs will be moving ones."

I could only stare at the vial. My hands started to shake. "Umm… Rosebud?"

I glanced up at James and Sirius. "You – this – but – we haven't talked about this since the train!"

Sirius grinned widely. "We know – do you like it?"

"Like it? Sirius, it's amazing! Thank you!" I put the vial down and got up to hug them both, before letting go and reaching for my camera.

"Are you going to be taking pictures again?" Peter asked weakly as I added a drop of the potion in the undeveloped film.

"Yes, Pete, I am, so you can stop whining about it and join us!"

The next week passed quickly, with teachers taking end-of-term exams to see what we'd learned, and soon we were on the train again, heading back home for the holidays. The only one of us who didn't seem excited by the prospect was Sirius, who was not even remotely interested in going home, though James had invited him to Christmas at the Potter residence, which Sirius had declined for the sake of his brother Regulus.

"It's going to be weird, not seeing you guys everyday. Sort of got used to it in the past three months," I said, looking up from the gobstones spewed around the floor of the compartment.

"Well, I'll be around. I'm sure our mums and dads will be eager to catch up," Remus said with a wry smile.

"But you live so far!"

"So? He can floo, and so can I!" James announced.

"Floo?" I asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Oh, right, no floo at your house… that's weird."

"I can get your fireplace connected to the network," Peter said, looking comical with half his face covered in gobstones goo. "Dad works in Floo Network Regulation."

"But isn't it illegal to connect a muggle home to the network?" Sirius asked.

"I can ask about it," Peter smiled.

"Would you? That'd be great… only someone has to tell me what the Floo network is!"

"It's like a subway system, except you use fireplaces as stops and Floo powder to help you travel through the fire," Remus explained.

"Wow. That sounds cool."

"Hot, actually. Fire's hot."

"Come on, Sirius."

"What? It is!"

"Anyway," Peter interrupted before I could say anything. "Remus and Ayesha will be meeting over the break… Anyone else?"

"If you can floo, you can come over to my place too!" James grinned.

"I'd invite you too, but I don't want you to get thrown out," Sirius sighed, getting off the floor and sitting next to the window, staring out with a vacant expression. "I'm pretty sure they won't be too happy with me being a Gryffindor."

I looked at the others before getting up and sitting next to him, resting my head on his shoulder, putting my arms around him to give him a hug. He hugged me back, and that was all that he needed. We didn't need words to convey our thoughts.

"Mate, are you sure you don't want to stay over for Christmas? You can get Regulus as well," James said.

"Nah, I dunno… Enough about me guys, let's get back to the game!"

Two hours later we found ourselves at King's Cross.

James took over the planning. "Okay, Rosebud's parents will be in the Muggle station, so - "

"No," I corrected. "They can come in. They'll be waiting toward the back."

"Okay, so you can go get them to that big pillar with the clock. Meanwhile, Remus and Peter will bring their parents to the same place and I'll bring mine there too."

"And I'd love to introduce my parents, but I don't want the platform to explode," Sirius grinned.

"Alright! Everyone have their directions? Go!"

"Wouldn't it have been easier to say 'Let's meet at the pillar with the clock'?" I whispered to Remus.

"Since when has James gone the easy way?" Remus chuckled. "You excited? It's the moment of truth with our parents."

I grinned evilly. "It's going to be epic."

We got off the train, and went our separate ways knowing we'd be meeting in a few minutes. I headed off to the back of the crowd, knowing Mum and Dad would be waiting there. As the crowd cleared, I could finally see them. I wheeled my trolley as fast as I could, making Bonnie give me the evil eye every time we bumped someone.

"Daddy!" I jumped on him as soon as I was close enough. He caught me in his sturdy grasp.

"Welcome back, Princess," he smiled.

"Hey, don't I get a hug?"

"Mum!" I giggled, giving her a tight hug. She looked different. "Did you cut your hair?" I asked, giving her a critical look.

"Yeah, Belle insisted I get a new look. Speaking of whom…"

Someone tickled me from the back and I jumped. "Belle! You're so mean!" I blew a raspberry.

"Aww, Bunny, that was cute!" she smirked, tapping my nose. I grinned back.

"Okay, now you need to come with me." I started pulling her hand and pushing the trolley at the same time. "Come on!"

Dad took the trolley from me and they followed me across the station. I saw Lily and Mary leaving and waved.

"Where are we going?" Belle asked.

"To meet my friends," I answered.

"Didn't you just spend three months with them?"

"Yeah, but they haven't met you guys, and I haven't said goodbye."

We finally got to the clock, where the Potters and the Pettigrews were already waiting. The parents went about introducing themselves.

"Where's Sirius?" I asked of James. His face fell.

"His mum saw him standing with us and took him away. He told me to wish you guys a happy Christmas."

"Who's serious?" Belle asked.

"Not serious, Sirius, like the star," I said absently, trying to compose my face from going all red and blotchy. "Can he at least write?"

"I think so," James said thoughtfully. Then he shook his head and looked at Belle. "I'm James Potter," he said, with an easy smile. "You're Rosebud's sister, right?"

"Isabelle, Ayesha's sister," Belle said, a note of confusion in her voice.

"He calls me Rosebud, Belle," I rolled my eyes. "It used to be annoying. Just wait till I'm taller than you guys."

Belle was looking at me with a weird expression. "You look taller, actually. And different. How much weight did you lose?"

"Umm…" I could feel my hair trying to change colours and controlled it. I made myself an inch taller than I normally was and that made me look a little thinner. "Oh look! There's Remus!"

Remus was in fact, walking towards us with his parents. Belle turned around just before my hair turned bright purple and back to black again. Remus looked at me and smiled.

"Moment of truth?" he mouthed. I grinned back and looked at Mum and Dad, who had just spotted Mr and Mrs Lupin.

"Hope? What in the world?"

"Angela?" Mrs Lupin looked as shocked as Mum.

Remus joined us kids in the back, watching the spectacle. "This is a lot different than I thought it would be," he commented. "I imagined tears."

"Just you wait, they'll be here," Belle said, finally gaining control of her dropped jaw. "Now I know you haven't forgotten me," she said slyly, poking Remus in the ribs.

"Of course I haven't, Belle," Remus grinned as Mum started jumping up and down with Mrs Lupin. "You broke our rock-house!"

"I didn't break it, it was structurally unsound!" Belle protested as James and Peter laughed. "What are you doing here anyway? Are you a witch too?"

"So, Bunny," Belle asked after we finished dinner that night. We were all sitting in the kitchen, the table had been cleared after third helpings of Mum's chocolate pudding (yum). "What's this secret that you've been keeping?"

I gulped down the last sip of water in my glass. On the way home my hair had turned yellow and I hadn't really noticed, so Belle sort of screamed and Dad hit the brakes, stopping an inch away from the car in front of us. I played it off then, saying I would show them something at home.

"Well, it's not really a secret… it's actually…" Boy, I was having trouble wording this. "You remember when you said I looked taller?"

"Yes. Don't change the subject," Mum said.

"I'm not! It's all related!" I said. I took a deep breath and made my hair pink and spiky, gave myself a button nose and really big eyes. It was the face I'd been preparing for this moment. Looking around, I saw identical looks of horror on all three faces, although Belle was a little intrigued too.

"Ayesha Rosalie Cooper!" Mum reprimanded. "You know you're not allowed to use magic outside of school! Stop doing that immediately, whatever it is!"

"Mum, it's not exactly using magic, it's different," I tried to explain. "We aren't allowed to use wand magic at home. This magic, this is something I'm born with."

"Really?" Dad leaned forward. "Do explain."

"This is Metamorphmagic," I said. "It means I can change my appearance at will. I don't need a wand."

"O…kay?"

I giggled at Belle and closed my eyes. Within seconds, I heard three gasps. It must have been weird to see two Belles sitting at the table.

"But I can't change my clothes at will."

 **Angela Cooper**

There I was, hoping for a nice, normal day in the morning. My little girl was coming home, Sam's sister Cathy was going to visit next week and the Christmas sales at the shop were going well.

I didn't expect to find Hope and Lyall Lupin at the station, their son and my daughter glued together at the hip like they had been the first four years of their lives.

I didn't expect to meet people like the Potters, who were not even the slightest bit unnerved that we weren't like them.

And I sure as hell didn't expect one of my daughters to suddenly shapeshift into the other.

I mean jeez.

"Ayesha, honey, you're gonna have to explain this properly."

"Alright," she smiled, turning back to her normal self, only this time, she kept her hair straight like her sister's.

"This is a rare ability that you're born with. You can't really learn it or anything. I can change what I look like and stay like that for as long as I want. I'm the only one at school, and only one of three alive in England today."

"If you were born with it, why don't we remember? Why did mum know you could do magic but not this?" Isabelle asked. I knew she was a little disappointed when we found out about all this, but she had put it all aside for Ayesha. She hadn't even let Ayesha realise. I was really proud of her.

"Umm, that's where my knowledge is a bit hazy," Ayesha said, scratching the side of her head and looking at some unknown point in the distance like she did when she was thinking real hard. "What I was told was that the Ministry Of Magic had been notified of a Metamorphmagus baby when I was three weeks old. They came to check, and they put a supressing charm so that I wouldn't accidentally change in front of other people. And I think they might have removed your memories," she finished quietly.

There was a silence as we contemplated her words.

How could they? No matter what secret they thought they were keeping, how could they steal our memories from us? They knew we would learn about magic someday!

"Who was it? Who notified the Ministry?"

"I don't know, Daddy," she said apologetically. "I first thought it was Mrs. Reynolds, but then I found Remus and remembered they were here too –"

"No they weren't," I said. "Hope and Lyall moved in next door a month before Remus was born. Around February. It was definitely Corrine Reynolds."

"Oh… I'll have to talk to her," Ayesha murmured.

"Aren't you mad at her?" Belle asked indignantly. "They kept you from being who you are and erased our memories!"

"Would you have been able to handle me if I kept changing all the time?" she countered. "Yes, I'm mad they took away your memories, but hiding my abilities was a security measure. A necessary one. And since they told me about it, I'm not really angry. I've even kept it a secret at school, only the boys and a few teachers know about it. You can understand the gravity of the situation."

"Why is it so important that it be a secret?" Sam asked, a note of panic in his voice.

Ayesha looked at each one of us in turn and breathed out deeply. "Since you're going to be spending time with the Lupins, you'll be hearing about this. So," she exhaled again, as if gearing up to tell us a secret of great magnitude. "You know how you guys can't do magic but I can? Well, there are some people who think that magic should only be passed down by blood, and they don't like people like me. It's a huge political thing right now. And even Headmaster Dumbledore didn't say anything about it when he told me to be discreet about my powers, but I think it has something to do with that."

"They don't like you because you're not born to magical parents?" Belle asked, and Ayesha nodded.

"I don't know what goes on in the world outside Hogwarts. I don't know what it'll be like when we graduate. But if the Headmaster asked me to be discreet, it's for a reason. And, coming back to supressing the magic when I was a baby, short of telling you the truth, and having a completely different childhood than the one I remember and cherish, what other option was there?"

And what could I possibly say to that, I thought as I got into bed later that night, except that my little girl had grown up way beyond her years in the last few months?


	8. The Gift of Names

**A/N: Hey guys! So, I'm skipping about three years and jumping into 1974, when Ayesha aka Rosebud aka Rosie and co. are in their 4** **th** **year. (and yeah I know she's changing names too much)**

 **Please let me know what you guys think of this. I would love to hear from you and receive some feedback. (It also helps in productivity** **:3 )** **What would you like to see happen with these characters? Do you find Ayesha as a character interesting?**

 **On to the story :)**

* * *

 _ **December 1974**_

"Are you gonna read that all day Rosie, or join us to make the largest exploding card stack ever?"

I sighed, putting down my book. At this rate I would never find out if Westley found Buttercup in time. "Fine, Sirius. Just don't go complaining when I want to read and you want to hold gobstones tournaments."

Sirius only shrugged as he held out a deck of cards. "It's Christmas, we meet in the New Year, might as well make the best of it!"

We were all sitting in the same compartment that I'd met James and Sirius in in our first year, which had pretty much become our standard compartment. So much had happened that I still couldn't believe that I'd known these boys, who had become so important to me. A rag-tag bundle of fourteen-year olds (I was fifteen), willing to cause trouble as long as we didn't hurt anyone and, amongst the five of us, had top scorers in each subject we took.

"We have the whole year!" Remus laughed, absently scratching on a scar on his hand.

"When's the next full moon, Remus?" I asked, adding to the stack of cards.

"Umm. After Christmas. On the 29th, I think."

Remus's condition had become well known to us by our second year, and we had welcomed him with open arms. It was quite a funny story really, involving spying with a certain Invisibility Cloak James had received that first Christmas, and also two sets of two-way mirrors. James gifted me one of them, keeping its pair close at hand when I still lived in the girls dorms. Anyway, it took a while for us to convince Remus that we would keep his secret, and no, we weren't going to report him to the Ministry or tell the whole school, and yes, we still wanted to be his friends. Once we got past Remus sulking about keeping secrets, the five of us became closer than ever.

"Will it be ready by then?" Peter asked, keeping a count on the number of cards.

"Definitely not," Remus and I said at once together, bursting out in laughter, causing the entire stack of cards to explode at once, and enveloping the compartment with smoke.

"The potion will take at least till the end February, Pete, you know that," I explained, after the coughing stopped, the smoke vanished, the prefects shooed away and the detentions received.

"And you don't want to try any of that near the parents. They'll go bonkers," Remus said.

I glanced at Sirius and James, both of who were trying to keep straight faces.

"Best to avoid the subject, yeah?" I added.

Remus nodded absently, staring at James, who, sensing the eyes on him, flicked over the new stack of cards that Sirius had started.

By the time the train pulled into King's Cross, we had a week's worth of detention waiting for us when we returned in January.

The Potter Mansion at Dover was the house closest to London. The parents (minus the Blacks) had agreed – without any prompting from our side – around second year that on the days us kids came home for the holidays, we would all congregate there for supper before leaving for our homes. So it came to no one's surprise when Mr. Potter, Mr. Lupin and Dad were the only ones waiting to greet us at the station.

"The mums are waiting back at home," Mr. P said jovially as he hugged Sirius. "No point in crowding in the car, eh?"

"What – Dad, I can carry that myself!" I exclaimed, snatching my rucksack back from him as fast as possible without jostling it too much, which caused all the adults and Remus to stare at me.

"A whole Christmas without having to look at those awful people I'm related to!" Sirius suddenly yelled, diverting attention from me and my wayward rucksack.

As soon as we entered the Potter household and hugged our mums, James and I surreptitiously exited the room while Sirius made a fairly large scene greeting Lexi, the house elf. James led me to the third floor, into his room and through that to another room.

"James, are you sure you want this so close to your room? I can take it home - "

"Mum and Dad never come in here. This is the best place for it. We could put up charms but I think that'd be more suspicious."

Satisfied, I pulled the cauldron out of my rucksack. I removed the lid, which was actually a transfigured ladle, and checked the potion. "Well, it looks okay. I'll be here to check on it every day, but you should stir it every six hours, just in case I can't make it."

"Twice clockwise, thrice anti clockwise," he replied, helping me remove the ingredients and tools onto the table. "I've got it down, Rosie. Hurry up, we should get down before Sirius has to resort to desperate measures."

"At least lock the door so no one can see it!" I protested, leaving the room and depositing my rucksack on James' chair.

"See what?" a voice behind us said quietly behind us. We froze, hoping desperately it was just the one person and not anyone else. Turning slowly, we found Remus, standing the doorway, hands crossed and looking very much like the prefect he would soon be if he kept making that face at troublemakers.

"Remus!" I said fake-pleasantly. "Have you noticed how pretty your eyes are?"

Remus wasn't buying it. He walked around us to the other room. James blocked his way, making Remus narrow his eyes.

"You brought it here, didn't you? Please tell me you aren't that stupid." James glanced at me, a guilty look passing between us. Remus' eyes widened. "Are you insane? You brought the potion here? To the home of the two most celebrated Aurors in history?"

He had a point. Brewing an illegal potion to turn into illegal Animagi so that we could illegally run around the Forbidden Forest with a secret werewolf every full moon and keep him company was dangerous enough at Hogwarts, without parental supervision. Bringing it to the Potter mansion was beyond insane, which is why when James, Sirius and I took the decision of not telling Remus about it.

"They're retired!" James protested.

"It needs constant attention, Rem!" I said, trying to make him less panicked and sending James a 'don't-go-too-far' glare. "We would have stayed at Hogwarts, you know that, but all the parents insisted we come home! What else could we have done?"

"How about not made the potion and forget about this insane idea to become Animagi in the first place?"

"You know we can't do that, Remus," James said apologetically. "And before you say anything else, might I suggest that we make a move to join the others, because Sirius has only ten minutes of material planned to keep the grownups occupied?"

We ran downstairs, Remus muttering all the way, to find Sirius singing sonnets to Mrs. Lupin. Mum gave me a questioned look but I shook my head.

Thankfully, we made it past Christmas without any of the parents realising we were brewing illegal and highly advanced potions in the back of James' room. My house being connected by the floo to the Potters, it wasn't uncommon for me to drop in a few times a day, just to make sure the potion was alright.

On the evening of the 29th, James, Sirius and I flooed over to Remus'. We spent as much of the as we could with him, trying to take his mind off of his impending transformation, before he had to leave to be locked up in the small shed behind his house. Unlike other times though, we refused to leave.

"We just want to be there for him, even if he doesn't realise it," I said, pleading with Mrs. Lupin, after Remus was safely inside the shed, knowing that if he knew we were trying this, he would protest vehemently. "We promise we won't do anything stupid."

It took another fifteen minutes, and multiple security charms on Remus' bedroom cast by Mr. Lupin, but we were finally allowed to stay. It was the first time we were so close to him on a full moon. We could hear every scream, every howl, every break of his bones. The three of us held each other the whole time, not saying a word, not even daring to breathe loudly.

It was in that position that Mr. Lupin found us in the morning, silently asking us to come out to the kitchen so that they could bring Remus up to his room.

We made our way downstairs, only to find Remus lying on the couch, hand over his eyes, snoring lightly. We ate silently in the kitchen and took our leave soon after. Mr. Lupin apparated us back to the Potter Mansion, not wanting to wake Remus by using the floo. The three of us made it up to James' room before a single word was exchanged.

"No wonder he doesn't want us near him," Sirius said quietly. "He doesn't want us hearing that."

"He goes through that every month, and he wants to spare us the pain," James laughed weakly. "Typical Remus."

"This doesn't change anything," I said. "Only makes me more determined." I got up and went to check on the potion.

Peter dropped in after a few hours, and being only slightly more cheerful than us, he convinced us to play a game of exploding snap. It took a while, but soon we were covered in soot and lying on the floor, unable to sit up straight because of all the laughing.

"You see?" Peter said after a while. "This is what Remus needs from us. Not the moping faces you were making when I got here."

"You're right, Pete," James said. "He doesn't want our pity, never has." Sirius nodded.

"He needs normal," Pete said firmly. "And you guys should know that," he said, poking me in the tummy.

I sighed, getting my head off the floor to kiss him on the cheek. "What would we do without you, Pete?"

"Die in mutual moping?" he suggested, starting an all-out tickling war, which ended only when Mrs. Potter called us down for lunch.

After eating way too much, we sat down and composed a letter to Remus, which after four hours, should have contained more than an order to get down to the Potter house when he felt up to it.

"I guess that should be enough," Sirius said, throwing down the quill and calling Hiccups.

When Remus didn't show up till after dinner, Peter made us promise to wait for him before going over to Remus's the next day, and went home. The next day, when Remus definitely should have been up and about and should have read the letter, I decided to pay him a visit and Floo'ed in alone.

He was sitting on the couch, reading. He had looked up at the sound of the floo, but quickly gone back to the book on seeing me. I could see his eyes move a little too quickly for someone reading _The Princess Bride_ for the first time.

"What's up Rem?" I asked brightly, plopping down next to him and throwing an arm over his shoulder. He winced, and shifted.

"Bruise on shoulder," he muttered, and I quickly removed my arm.

"That doesn't explain why you're still sitting here when we asked you to come to the Potters yesterday! I can see that you've opened the letter -" I pointed at the mantelpiece, where the letter was resting, " – so what do you have to say for yourself?"

"I don't want to see you guys," his voice was inaudible but I heard him.

"And why not?"

"You know why not," he hissed, glancing up at the kitchen to see if Mrs. L had come in. "I knew this would happen when you first found out! You'd try to sneak out and see me – you'll get hurt!"

"This is _so_ not the place for this conversation," I hissed back. "Just – come with me, we'll sort it out together!"

"This is exactly the sort of thing I don't want happening! You -"

"Ayesha, honey, I didn't know you were coming over!" Remus's mother ducked in from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.

"Hey Mrs. L! I just dropped by to see if Rez would join us for a while." My voice was unnaturally bright.

"Of course! Remus, just be careful and don't go running about," she said.

"Oh don't worry, Mrs. L, we know exactly how much he can take the day after," I laughed, simultaneously pulling Remus off the couch. "He'll be back in the evening!" I added for good measure; Remus would now have to spend the entire day with us to avoid getting ourselves on the parents' radar.

He was quietly seething about that fact all the way to James's room – where we found Peter sitting on Sirius's stomach and happily munching on several sugar quills while James was dancing around Sirius's head, wearing a pair of his boxers on his head.

"A little help?" Sirius called. I raised an eyebrow at Remus, who just sighed and proceeded to get Peter off Sirius.

"Okay," I announced, after things had gone back to semi-normal – James still had boxers on his head – "Coming to the topic of the moment – Rez is angry with us for spending the night at his place."

"But I thought we could spend time at whosever place we wanted," Sirius said, in a puzzled tone. It had just a smidge too much innocence.

"Don't act all naïve, Sirius," Remus fumed. "You know why I didn't want you there. This was exactly the thing I was scared of when you first found out about my condition. I knew you'd sneak away to try to see me. And just because you were safe this one time, doesn't mean you'll always be. I could have killed you!"

"How? We were locked in your room!" James protested.

"Don't think for a second that I'll believe you three weren't capable of removing the charms Dad set."

"We didn't have our wands, Rez," I said quietly. Remus turned to me with incredulous eyes.

"We didn't. Mr. L took them away from us. Even if there was an emergency, he'd have to come and unlock us."

"And," Sirius added when Remus seemed unable to speak, "we didn't want to. That wasn't the point of us staying. We wanted to be there for moral support, y'know. Since the potion obviously isn't going to be ready for a while."

Remus looked at his feet. "So…" he mumbled. He looked close to tears. "You just wanted to be there for me?"

"Yes, you goof," I poked him in the ribs. "Why do you think we're brewing illegal potions in James's walk-in closet?"

"It's not a walk-in closet!" James protested over whatever Remus was going to say. "It's a – a game room!"

"Oh, yeah," I said, in the most sarcastic tone I could muster, "and where exactly are the games?"

This caused James to pounce on me, and I somehow found a pair of boxers in my face.

* * *

 **Sirius Black**

Once Remus managed to pull James's boxers out of the equation, Rosie had finally calmed down enough to let go of James's hair and Peter got off my back – why that kid wanted to sit on me so much today, I don't know – so that I could return James's glasses.

"I need to go stir the potion," Rosie said haughtily, throwing a disgusted glance at the offending boxers and went into the aforementioned walk-in closet.

No, James, whatever you decide to call it, and however you use it, it's still a walk-in closet. It shouldn't matter that you have a whole other room where you dump your clothes.

"Get rid of the boxers," Peter suggested, "Or she's going to be in that mood all day." James threw the boxers under his bed.

"For your sake, I hope they were clean, James." Remus shook his head. James opened his mouth. "No, don't tell me. I want to be able to claim plausible deniability."

"Rosie shouldn't be so serious all the time. It's my job to be Sirius," I winked. There were four groans of frustration, as Rosie walked out of the closet.

"You hate that more than us, Sirius. Don't stoop to that level," Remus muttered.

Fully satisfied that Remus had moved on from the whole 'you-stayed-on-full-moon-and-I-didn't-like it' thing, I just smirked.

Rosie chose to sit on the floor and lean on my legs, so, naturally, I started shaking my leg to an imaginary beat. She threw her head back and glared at me. Shit, now I needed to sing, and quick –

 _Ooka chaka ooka ooka ooka chaka –_

Thankfully, James joined me.

 _I can't stop this feeling, deep inside of me –_

Yes! Rosie's head was bopping along! I could always count on my magical voice and this amazing song to distract her!

 _I, I'm hooked on a feeling, I'm high on believing, that you're in love with me –_

James had pulled Remus up to dance a waltz, and Remus had stepped on Peter's last Drooble's gum, so now he was running for his life, with Rosie yelling the lyrics to the song.

 _Lips as sweet as candy, it stays on my mind –_

Remus was now flat on James's bed, breathing heavily, too tired to run from Peter anymore, so Pete just sat on him.

"What's your fascination with sitting on people today?" Rosie laughed, trying to tickle him off of Remus.

"People shouldn't destroy my candy. You could eat it, but don't step on it or use it to clean your pits." He threw an overly irritated glare at me.

Oh, right. The sugar quills. That's why he sat on me.

"Get off of Moony, Pete, he's gonna deflate otherwise," I shooed him off.

Remus lifted his head to look at me. "Who in the name of Merlin's pointy hat is Moony?"

"You are," I crashed on to the bed next to him. "I have decided to call you Moony. It's a reference to your furry little problem, without actually referencing it. No one would actually understand what we're talking about. And it makes you sound like you whine a lot, which you do."

"I like it," James declared, falling on Remus's other side. "It's now your official Marauder nickname."

"Do I get a say in this?" Remus asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Nope," James and I chorused. Rosie jumped on the bed, landing half on my chest.

"So do all of us get names, or is it just Moony?"

"We should," I said seriously. "And they should make references to our Animagus forms! And I should choose them all since I came up with the awesome name that is Moony."

"You don't know your forms for certain yet." Remus was trying to pull his leg out from under Peter, who was sitting at the foot of the bed. Pete gave up and snuggled in between Remus and James.

"That's what the first potion was for! We know our forms are going to be close to the illusions from the lacewing flies draft!"

"So, I'm going to be a rat for sure then?"

"Yep. You're a chubby little grey rat. And you have a really long tail." I put my mind to it. Think.

"Wormtail," Rosie clicked her fingers.

"Wormtail?" James raised his eyebrows. He'd been trying the one eyebrow thing like Remus and Rosie, but it just wouldn't happen.

"Yeah. Because his tail is like a worm." She sat up to look at Pete. "You like?"

"I like," Pete said decidedly.

"Oh, _he_ gets a say in _his_ name," Remus muttered.

"Do me!" James sat up excitedly. "And no reindeer references! I'm a stag!"

"How exactly do you know it's a stag and not a reindeer?" Rosie asked with an eyebrow raised. See, James, that's how you do it.

"Reindeer aren't red," James brushed off, "and the antlers are different."

"He's done his research," Rosie laughed. "I did think your antlers were enormous though."

"Prongs?" I suggested. "Just because James's ego is tied to those antlers."

"I was thinking Forks, but Prongs sounds better," Rosie said, ducking out of the way as James threw a pillow at me.

"Prongs is good," Remus declared, probably trying to stop the pillow fight which was bound to happen. "That's three names done."

"Now what could we name a big shaggy black dog, which doesn't really say 'dog'?" James put his finger on his chin, stroking an imaginary beard.

"Snuffles!" Rosie declared. "End of discussion! Snuffles it is!"

"Nooooooooo," I whined. "Snuffles sounds like you've named a Pomeranian or a Poodle! I – am – not – an – adorable – tiny – little – puppy!"

"You did have huge feet," Pete reasoned. Rosie pouted.

"Snuffles is cute!" she flicked her curls at me.

"That's exactly why I don't want Snuffles!"

"Padfoot," Remus said. We turned to him. "For your feet."

"I still say that when he turns, there's going to be a tiny Pomeranian and we're just going to have to change his name again!"

"I hope not," Remus said, quite serious. "James and you can't quite control me on your own. Three is better than two."

Rosie glanced at me before reaching for Remus's hand and patting it. "Relax, Moony, we'll be fine, no matter how tiny Padfoot turns out to be." Remus mustered a smile for her.

"I'm not going to be tiny, but whatever," I rolled my eyes.

"That just leaves Rosie."

Rosie was a tricky one. Hers was the first form we saw, and we hadn't really expected the size of the illusion. She took up the entirety of Peter's bed, a great big black panther, with large paws, beautiful big green eyes and a head the size of two quaffles. We did our research and found out that she was actually a leopard, with a case of melanism that made her jet black. It was ironic, really, because Rosie was a rainbow on normal days.

"We could just call her Rainbow like I suggested all those years back."

"No!" she poked me in the ribs, hard enough to push me off the bed. "My form is all black, how are you getting away with Rainbow, a word which epitomises all the colours in the world?" I jumped to my feet.

"Because it's ironic! Your whole form is ironic! You _are_ a walking talking rainbow, exhibit A," I pointed at her presently yellow hair. She turned it black in an instant, sending a glare at her fringe. "My point, your honour," I said, bowing to Remus, "she changes colours the second she's annoyed with the present colour. Exhibit B, her hair is already purple."

"Argh!" she flopped back into the pillows. "I _hate_ Rainbow. I'd finally started accepting that you guys were calling me _Rosebud_ when you changed it to _Rosie_. The whole school thinks my name is Rosie now, and I like it. _Rosie_ is good. _Rosie_ , I can work with. _NO RAINBOW._ "

"Maybe something else," Remus suggested, trying to pull her back into a sitting position. "The other names are rooted in appearances, how about we try something different with you?"

"She sure made a lot of purring noises."

"Cats do purr a lot," James agreed with Pete.

"I'm not a cat! I'm a leopard, which just happens to be _the_ fastest animal on land. You better watch out for me if you keep calling me a cat, you little deer."

"And I'm not a deer!" James protested. "You should watch out for me, or I could – I could -"

"You could what? Stab me with you antlers?" Rosie suggested.

"Moving on," I said, sitting on James's hand to stop him. He quickly pulled it out. "Something with purrs?"

"Purry? Like Furry with a _P_?" Pete suggested.

"That sounds ridiculous," James said. "How about Pearl?"

"Like an oyster pearl?" Rosie raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, but only we'll know it actually means your purrs. It's the perfect cover!"

"You know, that makes no sense," Remus said to James, and then turned to Rosie. "Which is why it's the best!"

"You guys make no sense," Rosie countered. And then sighed. "I guess that's why I like you."


	9. Return to Hogwarts

**A/N – Hey guys! Hope you are enjoying this so far. Please let me know what you think! I've also started adding dates :)**

* * *

 **3rd January 1976**

It was just less than a week later that we found ourselves back on Platform 9 ¾ to take the train back to Hogwarts. The clock hands read a quarter to eleven when the Potters and Sirius finally reached our designated meeting spot, where Remus, Peter and I were already waiting with our parents.

"James forgot his broomstick polishing kit," Mr. Potter explained as he approached. "He ran back to find it, when we could have summoned it. That took an extra ten minutes."

"I would have thought it was impossible for James to forget anything Quidditch related," Remus said, surprised.

"I'll explain later," James muttered to us, throwing Sirius some serious shade.

Soon enough the mums were ushering us into the train. Once our luggage was in a compartment, we went back onto the platform to say goodbye.

"Now, Bunny, I don't want any more detention notices," Mum said, giving me a hug. "At least, not for hexing other students."

"I have to hex them back if they hex me, Mum," I grinned.

"Yeah, it's called self-defence, El, haven't you heard of it?" Dad joked along, mussing my hair. Mum sighed.

"At least stay out of the Hospital wing," she pleaded as I got on the train behind Peter.

"I'll try!" I yelled back at them. The train was starting to move. "Love you!"

The five of us waved at the platform for a while before settling down. I pulled my rucksack out from behind my trunk and placed it carefully underneath the seat, so it wouldn't get jostled during the ride.

"Sirius forgot the mermaid tears when I was carrying the cauldron," James said suddenly. "I had to run back saying I forgot my polishing kit."

"I can't believe I left you guys in-charge of packing up and transporting," I muttered, sinking into the seat. "It's all Belle's fault, for turning up with Todd for dinner last minute yesterday."

"Cheer up, Pearl, we packed everything!"

"Oh yeah?" I challenged, "why were the tears left behind?"

"They're volatile!" Sirius exclaimed. "If we put it in the kit with the lacewing flies they'd have evaporated!" I opened my mouth to retaliate but then realised he was right. "I just forgot about it last minute, okay?"

"Well, I guess you were being responsible," I sighed. "I have to say, as much as I love spending time at home with Mum and Dad, let's never do it again while we're brewing illegal potions. Just the anxiety of keeping it a secret was killing me." I kicked up my feet and placed them in James's lap opposite me.

"How do you expect to keep quiet about being Animagi then?" Remus raised an eyebrow. "If you can't handle this?"

"That's different," Sirius brushed off. "We have conclusive proof right now. Once we're actually Animagi, there's no physical evidence."

"Sirius has been reading too many detective novels," James explained.

"It's better than reading that Princess stuff Rosebud reads!" Sirius shot back.

" _The Princess Bride_ is not princess-y," Remus said haughtily as I shoved Sirius onto Peter. "It has elements of comedy, adventure, fantasy, romantic love, romance, and fairy tale!"

"Princess-y!" Sirius yelled as he started to tickle me in retaliation.

"No!" I managed to get out between breaths. "Stop!"

"Say it is princess-y!"

"I will – not!"

"Say it!"

"Fine! It – is – princess-y!" He stopped tickling me then, and pulled me upright in the seat. "You are one weird person."

"That's me, Sirius Black, eternal heart breaker and weird person." He spread his hands wide, effectively hitting Peter and me in the face.

"Heart breaker?" James twitched an eyebrow. His one eyebrow movement had improved some, but not nearly enough to have the same effect as Remus or me. "You don't date!"

"And that's why the hearts of the population above thirteen – both female _and_ male, mind you – are broken."

"Our hearts aren't broken," Peter pointed out.

"Because you're family, Wormy. I'm talking about dates."

"That's probably why you don't get asked out as much though," Remus said, reaching for a bottle of water. "People think you're dating Rosie."

I turned to Sirius and he turned to me. And then we both laughed.

"Or you," Peter supplied. We turned to look at him. "I heard a rumour about Sirius and Remus."

The water which had been in Remus's mouth suddenly found itself sprayed on Sirius.

"So it's acceptable that Padfoot is dating me, but not you?" I raised an eyebrow, as James found himself laughing so hard he was currently on the floor.

"Har har, Shaz," Remus smirked, avoiding Sirius's hands, which were currently flailing around trying to hit Remus – unsuccessfully, as Peter got the brunt of the attack.

The compartment door opened, and Lily's face appeared in the doorway. "Who's getting murdered – oh, it's you guys."

"Does James's laughter sound like someone's murdering him?" Peter questioned as James looked at Lily upside down from his position on the floor.

"It's always a possibility when the five of you are concerned," Lily smirked. "I'll get going before Pott –"

"Evans! You look wonderful today! Is that a new haircut?"

Lily sighed. "Never mind. Rosie, join us for a few?"

So I went to sit with the girls for a while, incidentally, in the very next compartment, and indulged in some much needed girl talk.

Alice was dating a sixth year, Frank. They had known each other since they were kids, running in the pureblood circles, and he had finally asked her out to the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year.

"– and then, I snuck away to Diagon Alley, saying that Mary and I were going robes shopping, and spent the entire day with him!"

"For the record, if your mum asked my mum, she wouldn't cover for you," Mary added. Alice stuck her tongue out at her.

"Rosie, anything new with you?" Alice asked. I hesitated. Advanced potion making skills – no. Animagi transformations – no. Names relating to said transformations – definite no-no.

"Oh, you know, spent most of the time at the Potters. And we went to see Sirius's cousin Andromeda. She just had the most adorable kid –"

"Wait, Black doesn't get along with his family, right?" Caroline asked.

"This is the good cousin," I laughed. "Andy married a muggleborn after Hogwarts. But guess what! The kid, she's a metamorphmagus too!" The girls all squealed in delight, and I went on to tell them about the adorable Nymphadora Tonks.

"I;m disappointed, Rosie," Lily said after the excitement died down, shaking her head. "You see Potter and Black every day and yet you chose to spend Christmas at home with them," Lily said flatly.

I grinned. "And Lupin and Pettigrew." Lily sighed, and I laughed. "We usually jump between my place, Remus's and James's. There's also Amelia's place, but we don't go there much, just a short visit. And we spent Boxing Day at my sister's new flat."

"How is Isabelle?" Mary asked as all four of them leaned toward me. They had met Belle in the summer and she quickly became their hero-slash-lifestyle guru.

"She's doing great, really happy. Todd is very calm and quiet, so they balance out well enough." I turned to Lily. "What about Petunia?"

"Nothing new to report," Lily rolled her eyes. Petunia had not taken well to Lily's inclusion into the magical world. Isabelle had even tried talking to her several times, but the effort was futile. "She's still fawning over Vernon."

"I thought you were calling him _Vermin_ ," Alice smirked.

"I _may_ have _accidentally_ let that slip at dinner in front of Mum and Tuney. And Tuney _may_ have refused to acknowledge me for the rest of the holiday. And Mum _may_ have made me promise not to call him that again. And Dad _may_ have high-fived me in secret when he heard about it." It took us a while to recover after that.

"So, Caroline, what's up with you?"

Caroline flashed a grin before assuming a more composed look, leaning back in her seat and examining her perfectly manicured nails. "Oh, nothing at all. Just had a quiet Christmas in Paris."

It took a second for her words to sink in before four shrieks sounded around the compartment.

"Paris!"

"Why didn't you tell us?!"

"Why didn't you take me?"

" _J'aime le Paris_!"

"Okay, calm down!" Caroline yelled above us all a split second before the door burst open and James, Sirius and Peter fell face first into the compartment.

"You were screaming."

"We thought something was strangling you."

Remus was standing at the door, shaking his head. "I warned you guys."

I met the gaze of the other girls. Caroline and Mary had pulled their legs up to the seat in surprise and Lily was rolling her eyes at Sirius, who was now dramatically rubbing his head.

"It's no wonder the girls think of you as childish," I said. "That was terrible."

* * *

 **28th February 1976**

"Well guys, today's the day!"

Sirius groaned as I pulled apart the curtains to the window. It was late February, so instead of the blazing sunlight I'd imagined flooding into the room, a cloudy morning grumpily allowed a small amount of light in. Frowning, I cast a charm to mimic sunlight flooding into the dorm.

"I swear Rosie, you are too happy in the mornings!" James sat up and rubbed his eyes. Remus and Peter were still snoring. Remembering that the full moon was just two days ago, I walked past Remus's bed and jumped on Peter.

"Get up silly mouse! It's ten past eight already!" Peter opened his eyes in alarm.

"I'm up I'm up I'm up!" He pushed me off his bed and I landed noisily on the floor between his and Remus's bed. Huffing, I grabbed Remus's bedding and used it to pull myself off the ground, accidentally catching a hold of his hand and then successfully slapping myself with it.

Remus opened one eye. "Are you trying to slap yourself using my hand?"

"I'm not _trying_ to, it's just happening somehow." I landed on him as I tripped on my feet, making him gasp as my elbow probably poked his ribs. "Sorry, Moony," I said sheepishly as I finally got to my feet. "It's Pete's fault."

"It wouldn't have happened if you weren't up so early in the morning!"

"Pete, we wake up at five every day, and it's almost time for class!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting up."

"Why are you so excited anyway?" Remus yawned as he sat up and pulled out a set of robes from his trunk.

"Today is the day the potion finally gets ready!" I danced around the room and theatrically fell on Sirius. "Just two more rounds of stirring and the addition of mermaid tears and we're done with it!"

"I would appreciate this day much more if you weren't currently trying to bury me in my own bedding."

"There!" I declared, stoppering the bottle of mermaid tears and setting it down. "That's the final ingredient!"

The boys shuffled over and joined me in peering into the cauldron.

"What are we looking for?" Peter whispered.

"It should turn golden," I checked my watch, "in about sixteen seconds."

I could hear Sirius counting the seconds with Mississippis. James, who was closest to me, squeezed my hand. This was the final test. If it turned golden, then we could finish with the potions and finally start on the transfiguration section of animagi transformation. Seven months of careful potions work had gone into this, so much that I started avoiding potions classes as of late. Slughorn was certainly not amused, but if he knew what I was doing, he'd give me my NEWTs Potions grade in an instant. He would also expel me from Hogwarts, but that was a different matter.

"It's changing!" Remus whispered, eyes wide.

And it was - dark purple until just a second ago, it suddenly lightened to a glimmering golden.

My face broke into the widest grin imaginable as the boys hooted and started jumping around. Sirius lifted me by the arms and - once he dragged us away from the cauldron - started spinning me around the room.

It took another fifteen minutes for us to calm down.

"So, what now?" Peter asked.

"Now, we forget about the potion for two months while we develop our spells," James said.

"And since I'm the only one who knows Latin, you just have to write them in English and then I get to translate them," I said. James and Sirius turned to stare at me. "What?"

"You think we've just been sitting around waiting for you to finish the potion, don't you?" Sirius mussed my hair.

"What do you think we are, freeloaders?" James said with an affronted look.

"You've been working on the spells?" I asked, eyes wide.

James and Sirius glanced at each other.

"Err, no," Sirius was sheepish. And then he straightened up and cleared his throat. "Quae est scire Latine."

Remus, Peter and I looked incredulously from Sirius to James.

James just grinned. "Quis 'in a nomen? Quod dicimus Rosa alio nomine, ut suavis, ut odore illius perfruatur."

"Are you quoting Shakespeare, in Latin? You know that Shakespeare wrote in English right?"

"Pish posh, Moony, we're just doing it for the – Pearl, are you crying?"

"No," my voice hitched, and I pushed a traitorous tear out of my eye.

"Well this sort of ruins my surprise," Remus sighed theatrically.

"There's more?!" I exclaimed.

Remus got up and walked to his bed. He picked up a small notebook and tossed it to us. James caught it deftly and started flicking through it.

"No way..."

"What? What is it?" Peter was jumping in spot.

"He's been working on our spells!"

We all crawled forward for a closer look. The page James had open said 'Prongs' on the top. There was a detailed drawing of a stag, painstakingly drawn, every detail similar to the illusion we had conjured. Under it were words, lots of words, all descriptive of a stag. There were at least two pages worth of descriptors for each of us.

We looked up at Remus at the same time. He looked sheepish and embarrassed.

"It's just for reference. I haven't started on the actual spells. I'll help you on those, if you want."

"You know what this means, Rosebud?" Sirius asked.

"What?"

"Remus has finally, whole heartedly given us his consent to become Animagi."

We all looked at Remus, who looked a little sheepish. "Yeah, well, if I didn't want this happening, I'd have told Dumbledore before you made the potion."

"You wouldn't dare!" Sirius exclaimed in mock-horror, eyes going wide, hands to his mouth.

"Har-har," Remus said flatly, "the point is, as much as this may blow up in our faces, if you're willing to do this for me, I want it to work. But – " he held up his hand as James and I stopped in our tracks – we were halfway to hugging him – "anything goes wrong, and I mean _anything_ – then we stop. Deal?"

I jumped on him anyway and held him tight. "Deal."

* * *

 **Lily Evans** **– 27** **th** **March 1976**

It had been a beautiful Thursday; we had Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology, and the weather had just started clearing up, so spending time outside was not quite as daunting as it had been for the past few months. The free afternoon we had was also spent in the brisk afternoon sun, by the lake. Rosie and her boys managed to dare seven Slytherins third years to jump into the lake, all the while remaining dry themselves.

"You're the sensible one, Remus," I told him later in the common room, "you should say something!"

"I didn't see you interfering," Remus smirked, "and besides. It's full moon. I honestly didn't have the energy."

Remus had told me about his condition in third year, when we were studying werewolves in Defence. Truth be told, I had already figured it out – he disappeared on the nights of full moons, he was tired all the time, and a subtle conversation with Rosie had confirmed my suspicions – and not two days later, Remus confirmed them himself. I was glad he trusted me with his secret, but then I had to convince the idiot that I wasn't going to report him or something like that.

" _Honestly Remus, you'd think I don't know what it's like to be different."_

" _I turn into a monster once a month, Lily. How can you be okay with that?"_

" _And I'm abnormal because I don't come from a long line of magic. Come on, Remus. For me, you'll always be the kid who matches socks with your cardigan and takes amazing notes."_

I nodded in understanding. "Fine, Remus, but it shouldn't keep happening. Black and Potter already have detentions for tonight."

"I know, Lily," Remus sighed, and then his face tightened. "I'll tell Rosie to handle it. I think I might skip dinner," he said thoughtfully.

"Will you be alright?" I asked, concerned. "Should I get Rosie?"

"Rosie's here, what's up?" she had snuck up behind us, with Peter in tow.

"I'm going to the Hospital wing now," Remus said, wincing as he stood up. "Dang. Tonight was roast beef night."

"I'll walk with you," Peter offered, and they headed out slowly.

"I worry about him, Rosie. He looks so bad this month." I bit my lip.

"Really?" Rosie thought. "It's one of the easier months. Maybe I'm getting complacent. Come on, we're gonna miss dinner."

I packed up my things and left them there, heading down to the Great Hall. "How long have you known?"

"Since first year," Rosie said, jumping a trick step. "But last break, we –"

"We what?" I asked when she hesitated. She sighed.

"We spent the full moon in his house. We heard everything – it wasn't good." Her voice had turned to metal, and she was shaking. Her hair had turned a dangerous red, and her eyes were lightening.

"Rosie," I shook her out of whatever thoughts were running in her head. We were almost at the marble staircase, it wouldn't do face the students like that. "He'll be fine. I don't know what I'm saying, you've been observing him longer."

She threw a small smile at me, controlling her appearance as we entered the Hall and sat at the table. "I really want to do something to help him. _Really_ help him. Find a cure. A potion that helps. _Something_."

"Hasn't there been any research on this?" Lycanthropy was an old condition, someone somewhere must have done some work on it. Rosie just shook her head.

"Remus says he's tried every herb, every potion out there. Nothing has helped."

"Well, then, we'll do it," I said decisively. "We'll find the cure, Rosie. You and I together."

Rosie looked up from her plate. "You mean that?" she asked hopefully. "I've wanted to do something about this since I found out. It's the reason I'm considering becoming a healer when I graduate."

"I always wanted to be a doctor," I grinned. "A healer is my best bet. And if we get into research – oh Rosie, it would change everything!"

"We still have a long time before we actually graduate," Rosie grinned, but her eyes sparkled a bright blue.

"We have something to look forward to," I argued. "And maybe we could take healing lessons with Madam Pomfrey. I've read that if there's enough interest they have a NEWT course on it."

"I'd definitely be interested," a yellow haired Rosie said, now almost jumping in her seat.

"Rosie, whatever you're excited about, calm down," Peter said, having just joined us. "People are staring."

We both looked around – indeed, some students were looking our way warily; knowing Rosie was one fifth of the infamous pranksters, it wasn't a good sign for everybody else when she looked so excited. Generally.

"Whoops," she smiled. "So Lils, it's a deal." Then she frowned. "I also want to be an Auror. Damn, this is tough."

"You have a few years to decide," I smirked. "And you can do research even if you're an Auror, no?" she laughed at that.

"We have good times coming."

I smiled, and we went back to dinner. Rosie and Peter excused themselves early – ' _we usually spend full moons in the dorm, don't want to break tradition_ – so I joined Amelia from Ravenclaw when I finished dinner.

Once we parted ways on the way back to our respective towers, though, I was ambushed by Severus.

"Severus, what –?"

"Lily," he whispered, looking frantic. "I need to tell you something –"

"Come on, Severus, you haven't spoken to me in a month, and now – let go, Sev, you're hurting my arm." He let go immediately, looking as if I'd electrocuted him.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry Lily, I didn't mean to!"

"Relax, Sev. It's fine, what's going on."

He went back to looking frantic. "You remember when I said there was something wrong about Lupin?"

I frowned – ever since I found out about Remus, I'd tried to dissuade him from this theory of his. No matter how good a friend Sev was, Remus wouldn't want him to know. "Sev, I've told you, he goes home to see his Mum."

"Then why does he look sick all the time?" Sev challenged. "He just went out with the nurse, why would she accompany him home?"

"Sev, I don't want to hear it," I said stubbornly. "You've been going on about this forever. There's no proof."

"But I can _get_ proof –"

"And after a month of not talking, _this_ is what you want to talk about? I know your friends don't like that you hang out with me, but Sev, we're friends."

He looked stricken. He knew I was right – the last time we were talking Mulciber and Avery had made some comments, and Sev had avoided me since.

"I'll talk to you when I feel like it, Sev. Goodnight."


	10. Betrayed

**27** **th** **March 95**

"Wormy, why exactly haven't you finished your Charms essay yet?" I asked, lounging on my bed with my head falling off the side, my Runes textbook held above my head. "We're due to hand that in tomorrow afternoon, and the rest of us completed ours on Tuesday!"

"I know, Rosie, but I fell asleep Tuesday, remember? Still trying to remember how the banishing charm should work."

"Well, here, take a look at my notes – it's not as refined as the essay, but you'll find most of the information there." I handed him the parchment after rummaging for a bit. There was a bit of quiet as Peter went over them – quiet which was wholly unexpected and appreciated in my life right now. It was James's birthday, so we'd woken up early to surprise him, but it was also the full moon, which meant we would be up all night as well. Sirius and James had been pranking students all morning, claiming it was for his birthday, but we knew it was for Remus's benefit as well – anything to distract him from his impending transformation. Remus had already gone down to the Shack, and I'd expected James and Sirius to return a while ago, but they had probably gotten involved in some other prank, or hopefully just getting more snacks from the kitchens. Deciding that I would go looking for them in ten minutes, I went back to my Runes text, where we had just started reading some complex passages.

"Rosie, these notes are brilliant! Why did you say they aren't as refined as the essay – I'd rather read these than the textbook before exams! All the information's there in one place, and I don't have to look through fifteen pages of theory in three different books to find it."

"You think so?" I asked, sitting up. I pulled my folder of notes closer – even though I used parchment and quills on a daily basis, some things, like folders and highlighters, the muggles got just right. "I've been keeping a ledger of the spells and potions we learn about this year – we'll need them for our OWLs. Maybe it would be useful to study from these, if I added some more information on their history and some –"

Just then, the door burst open, and a wild-faced Sirius fell in, and clambered up.

"Sirius what happened?"

"I – I told – James went – Remus –" I was by his side in an instant, getting him to sit down on one of the beds, and shook him slightly.

"You aren't making sense – start from the beginning, what was that about Remus?" His eyes suddenly found mine, and he looked haunted.

"We have to find a teacher!" he grabbed my shoulders and got to his feet. "James is headed down the Whomping Willow!"

"What? Sirius, why? What is James doing?"

"I – I told Snape how to open the Whomping Willow," he barely whispered.

I felt like the world had stopped. Snape, who had been, for months, trying to find out what Remus was doing every time he missed classes, knew how to get to the Shrieking Shack. And if he went down there tonight –

"Remus is there! Moonrise was half hour ago! How could you Sirius?"

"It just happened! I couldn't take it back once it slipped out. I told James and he went running from outside the Common Room –"

James would stop Snape. But who knew how long that would take? And how would he get Snape to stop in the first place?

I had already crossed the room and picked up my wand. "You'll be lucky if they both don't end up dead tonight," I snarled. "You've done enough damage, go tell McGonagall, get help!" I didn't wait to see if he had listened.

"Rosie, where are you going?"

I didn't stop to answer, and ran out the portrait hole, and took the fastest possible path down to the Entrance Hall. The door was still open, as it was not yet curfew, and I slipped out and ran even faster. At this pace, I had just caught sight of the Willow when it froze, and someone slipped under the tree – James was not much farther – so I only hoped Snape wasn't too far down the tunnel.

It took a few more minutes before I got to the Willow and used the same branch that James had probably used and slipped into the tunnel. Unlike our earlier trips into the Shack, speed was critical, and I made no effort to silence myself while I ran through the mile-long tunnel.

"Rosie?" James's voice came from ahead and I slowed. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"No time, no time, let's get Snape and get out of here," I hissed, pulling him along when I saw he meant to slow down and stop me.

"You could get hurt – you know what, I'm not even going to pretend to try to send you back. I have no idea what to do."

I might have smiled if the situation was different and we weren't running inside a tunnel to stop our evil arch nemesis from getting killed by our werewolf brother. "First we catch up to him, and then we stop him."

"Well, I _know_ we need to do that!" he panted.

We had almost reached the house, when we could see the light of a wand ahead. Knowing it could only be Snape, we ran even faster. Our thunderous approach alerted him, and he turned, putting his back to the tunnel, and aimed his wand at us.

"What are you doing here?" he snarled at us.

"Rescuing you, you idiot," I said, breathing heavily as I held the wall for support. "What sort of a madman thinks of coming down to a haunted house through a tunnel under a murder tree?"

"I know that Lupin is there," he jerked his head toward the door, which was, astonishingly, open. "I know that he's a werewolf. I heard the howls," he smirked as Remus howled again, "I just need proof."

"That proof is going to get you killed so let's go back the way we came," James said, finally grabbing Snape by the arm. He let go with a startled hiss – Snape had hexed him.

"Don't touch me, Potter!" he snarled. He waved his wand again, and I felt my legs give out – the Jelly Legs curse – and James falling next to me. "I'm going to do this no matter what."

"Snape, you fucking idiot," I hissed, as I tried to get my wand out. Snape had not wasted any time and crossed the door, into the Shack. James had already pulled his out and whispered the counter-jinx and was doing the same for me. "Thanks," I said, accepting his hand and getting to my feet. "Now what?"

"Now we go in, get him out. I say we Stun him, so he doesn't protest."

"Even considering that we would have to carry him back up the tunnel, that seems like the best course of action."

Wands drawn, we approached the hallway with caution. We could hear Snape in the next room, and Moony was thumping about upstairs, so we went ahead to the next door.

"Snape," I hissed, making him turn. "It's not safe, get back here!"

"You're not going to stop me Cooper!" he said, raising his wand again. I raised mine in warning. "Don't even think about – "

" _Dormio_ ," James whispered, and Snape suddenly closed his eyes, sleeping soundly.

"That was well done," I whispered, right before Snape swayed and thunk-ed onto the floor.

"That," James muttered, as the thumping from overhead halted, "Was not so well done."

The thumping became a run, and suddenly Moony was on the stairs. James had run forward to grab Snape by the arms and pull him out, as quietly as he could, and I ran in between them and Moony, keeping my wand up, trying to grab Snape's legs.

We got through the doorway before Moony spotted us. James was dragging Snape though the first door, the door which if it was closed would keep Moony at bay.

"Rosie, now!" James whispered, but Moony had already come into the hallway, giving me my first look ever at him.

He was twice as tall as Remus, with long legs and hands, and a snout-like face. His bones protruded outward from his body, and there were scratches on his forearms. But most importantly, his eyes were still brown. I could still see Remus in there, and for a moment, he recognized me. I smiled, hoping this wasn't a big mistake.

"Remus," I whispered softly, extending my left hand to him. "It's me, it's your Shaz." He sat down, looking at me patiently.

"Rosie, get out of there now!" James hissed in a slight undertone, but I could hear the urgency in his voice. I was almost at the door.

"You recognize me, don't you Rez?" I smiled.

And then he lunged.

Some force pulled me back, through the doorway, and then suddenly, the door closed. A mighty thud against the door indicated that Moony tried to slam the door open, but it would not budge.

I found myself lying on top of James, who had, at the last second, cast a summoning charm on me to pull me to him. I rolled over next to him, and we both lay there for a few seconds.

"Thanks for that," I said after a moment.

"Wish I'd thought of it sooner," he muttered. "Would have saved us the trouble of going after Snape into the house."

"It wouldn't have worked," I countered. "Summoning a person, it's tricky; if you gave me time to think about it, I'd have blocked it."

James sat up. "Are you saying if the hallway was long enough, _you'd have_ _blocked me trying to save your life?_ "

I laughed. "Not _me,_ " I said, "Generally. Snape wanted to go in, he'd have blocked you."

"Oh, makes sense now," James said dryly, getting to his feet and offering me a hand. "Snape's over there, still slee – Rosie, why's your arm bleeding?"

I looked at the hand I'd just put in his. I wasn't wearing robes over my tank top and jeans, so my arms were free. There, on my forearm, were two long cuts, from my elbow to the middle of my arm, and it was steadily dripping blood.

"He got you," James whispered, as he put his other hand around me and pulled me to my feet. I was still staring at the gash, unblinking. "Moony bit you!"

"No!" I yelled, a little hysterical. "No, it can't be, he didn't get close enough. He swiped his hand, this might just be a cut from his claw." James had started to shake, and I pulled his face to me. "If this was a bite then I wouldn't be standing right now talking to you. You've heard what it was like the night he was bitten. I don't feel anything!"

"Right," James said, shaking. "Try to grow your skin over it." I glanced back at the cut, and did as he suggested, but even when I concentrated, I could not.

"It's not working," I whimpered, suddenly scared. "I can't concentrate." James pulled out his wand.

"It'll be fine," he said, trying to put some confidence into his voice, "I'm going to try to get the bleeding to stop, okay? Then we can get it checked by Pomfrey."

"You don't know any healing spells, James," I said, "Let's get up to the castle, and we'll figure it out."

James hesitated, trying to remember any healing spells. Then, he produced a long piece of cloth and tied it carefully over my elbow to staunch the flow. "Let's go," he said, casting a levitation charm at Snape.

The walk back was long, and somewhere along the way the adrenaline drained out and I started to feel that cut. I kept tripping, since I couldn't use my left hand to balance, and James kept trying to catch me, which meant Snape kept hitting the wall. "I could care less about a bruise or two on his head," James muttered. "We're almost there." It was his form of self-motivation, I knew we had almost a third of the way remaining; James was getting tired of maintaining the levitation. I rubbed his hand, about to say that we could just rest for a moment, when we heard someone approaching us from ahead. It was only a few minutes later that Dumbledore himself came into view.

"Headmaster!" I cried in relief, almost sagging into James.

"Are all of you alright?" he asked, voice unnaturally serious, glancing down at Snape.

"Yes," James said, putting Snape down. "Snape's asleep, but Rosie has a cut on her arm."

Dumbledore glanced away from Snape, and his eyes locked on my arm. "It's not a bite," I reassured him, "he didn't get close enough."

I could see his sigh of relief. He conjured a stretcher, and put Snape on top of that, ("Why didn't I think of that", James muttered) and one on which he asked us both to sit and waved his wand around us.

The next moment, we were in the Hospital Wing, and Madam Pomfrey was upon us.

"No one is bitten, Poppy," Dumbledore said calmly. "You should have a look at Miss Cooper, but everyone is safe."

Poppy wasted no time in ushering James and I onto one of the beds, all the while yelling things like _what we you thinking, going after a werewolf_. James and I remained silent. Dumbledore opened the doors, and Sirius and McGonagall ran inside, to stop in front of us.

"Are you okay?" Sirius yelled, and Poppy stopped us from answering.

"Mr. Black I will not have yelling in my Hospital!" she yelled herself, as she put Snape on the bed next to James.

McGonagall had approached James's bed quietly, and done her own assessment of his health, and then come over to me, where she saw the cut.

"I'm fine Professor," I said, before she could overreact. "It's just a scratch."

"You better hope it is, Miss Cooper!" I could see the anger in her eyes, and more importantly, the fear, that another one of her students would have to face the same fate.

"If it was a bite, I wouldn't be sitting here so calmly and telling you this," I pointed out, and she sighed visibly.

"Whenever there is trouble in this school, why does it _have_ to be you lot?"

"Beats me, Professor," James said cheerily. Sirius, standing next to him, chuckled, but sobered when both of us glanced at him.

"Mr. Snape is alright, Headmaster, just under a sleep spell," Poppy announced, while simultaneously casting the counter charm. "He should wake in about half hour."

"Thank you, Poppy," Dumbledore said softly. "Minerva, once Miss Cooper's treatment is seen to, could you escort her, and Messrs Potter and Black up to my office? I shall go back to the Whomping Willow and reinforce some wards, and I will be back with Mr. Snape." With this, he strode to the Floo and disappeared.

McGonagall took a seat right in front of us, as if we might run away if she didn't and did not move until Poppy had healed my arm and given me three different salves to apply on the scar.

"Wouldn't I be able to grow skin over the scar?" I asked, looking at McGonagall. She glanced at Poppy and back at me, and gestured for me to try. When it didn't work she nodded, as if she expected it.

"Scar from a werewolf, even if it did not transmit lycanthropy, it won't go away so quickly." I sighed and collected the salves. James had already gotten up and taken the salves from my hand; and we followed McGonagall out of the Hospital to Dumbledore's office.

Through this whole time, Sirius had remained silent. The first few minutes, I had resolutely not even looked in his direction and neither had James, judging from the fact that Sirius stopped talking. He walked quietly next to us, caught me when I tripped, but stayed to himself.

I was having a hard time believing that Sirius was capable of this. How could he do that to Remus? When Remus woke up, if he found out that he had attacked someone, he would be crushed.

We had reached Dumbledore's office, and quietly sat on the chairs McGonagall conjured for us. Sirius sat next to me, but he nudged his chair slightly away from us.

Soon enough, Dumbledore arrived, with Snape in tow. Snape glared at us, and if looks could kill he'd have murdered us right there. But he remained quiet, as Dumbledore had probably asked him to, and pulled his chair as far away as possible from James while still being behind the desk. Dumbledore had meanwhile walked around the desk and taken a seat, and McGonagall took the seat beside him.

Dumbledore took his time, looking at each one of us in the eye, before starting to speak. "I must say that I never thought this day would come," he said sadly. "I never imagined that a student could send another toward almost certain death and that student would, in fact, run toward it knowing the consequences."

"I would like an explanation from each of you, but no one is to interrupt the other. Mr. Black, if you would please begin."

"I didn't mean for it to happen," Sirius whispered, looking down at his knees, before he took a deep breath and began. "We normally spend full moons in our dorms, doing anything to keep ourselves busy, because ever since we found out about Remus, we don't – we _can't –_ sleep on those nights. Rosie and Peter had finished dinner and were waiting in the dorm, and James and I had just finished detention. James left early, he was meeting Winters for a Quidditch discussion. I was talking to Regulus, he – Snape saw me leaving, and he kept making comments like he knew where Remus was going and what was happening and – and it sort of slipped out."

"That's a lie!" Snape exclaimed, but a glance from Dumbledore had him go quiet again.

"I couldn't take it back, Snape was determined to go down there, and we were at the third floor," Sirius continued. "I tried to jinx him, so that he would stop, but he stunned me and left." I gasped, and James, who was holding my hand, went unnaturally still. Sirius then recounted how Alice found him and unjinxed him, and how he ran to tell James, and then me, and then McGonagall. He became quiet after that, and Dumbledore asked Snape to say his side.

"He didn't let it slip, he said it like he meant it!" Snape declared, and then went on to say that Sirius goaded him into going to the Willow and getting proof if he was so sure about Remus. He made his way to the Shack, where he opened the door, and then he said that James and I arrived there, but then he went inside, saw the werewolf and got the proof that he was after. "That's all I remember," Snape said, with a haughty look at the three of us.

James had been getting angrier with every word out of Snape's mouth. "How dare you accuse us of trying to lock you inside a house with a werewolf, when the both of ran down from Gryffindor Tower to save your arse," he snarled at Snape. I squeezed his hand, trying to calm him down. "Headmaster, when Sirius told me what had happened, I ran down to stop him because if we went to you or McGonagall it might have been too late. It was almost too late when I got there," he whispered, and I gestured that I would continue.

"I realized that James had gone without help, and Sirius was too hysterical to actually help, so I asked him to inform you, Professor," I said looking at McGonagall, "and then went down myself. I caught up with James when he was a third of the way down the tunnel, and then we both got to Snape when he was still outside the house, yet the door was open."

"You had to have known earlier, there was no way you could have reached me that fast!" Snape spat out. Dumbledore raised his hand toward Snape and gestured for me to continue.

"James and I were running to save _your_ and Remus's lives, Snape, so obviously we were more motivated to get there before you did," I said, before continuing. "We could have stopped Snape before he entered the house, and left undetected, but Snape cast a Jelly Legs on the both of us, and walked in, not listening to us." McGonagall had taken all our wands and cast _Priori Incantem,_ which confirmed our side of the night's events. This earned Snape a couple of glares from McGonagall and the Headmaster, though he tried to hide it. I told the rest of the story as it was, until we met the Headmaster in the tunnel, and we fell quiet. I leaned into James's shoulder, completely drained, and he put his arm around me.

Dumbledore sighed and leaned back in his seat. "In all my years of teaching such an event has never occurred. Mr. Black, Mr. Snape to say that I am disappointed, would be an understatement."

"I know I messed up," he whispered. His voice was full of remorse, and I couldn't help but feel bad for him, but he'd made his own bed. "I'll accept any punishment you give me. I'll leave the school if you want me to." James turned sharply to look at him then, and I couldn't help but follow suit. "I only ask one thing – that I can tell Remus what happened myself. He should hear it from me." He looked at us then, holding our gaze until finally, James nodded. Unable to look into his hollowed eyes anymore, I turned away and burrowed into James's shoulder.

"Very well," Dumbledore said, and I heard something like approval in his voice. "You will be serving detention with Prof. McGonagall until she sees fit, and I shall reserve judgement on further punishment until the end of the week." Sirius nodded solemnly. "Mr. Potter, Miss Cooper, your actions while they may have been from the heart, and saved a life, you must understand that there is always another way, rather than to charge headlong into danger."

"Apologies, Sir, but if we'd waited to explain the situation to you, most likely, Snape would have been dead, and Remus would never have forgiven himself for it," James said, not hesitating a single bit. "With two lives at stake, I don't think I did anything I should regret, and since Rosie followed me, I'm pretty sure she feels the same way."

I looked up in time to see Dumbledore and McGonagall share a look, and then Dumbledore nodded.

"Professor," I said, straightening. "For four years, we were the only ones who knew Remus's secret. And while I know that tonight's events were caused by one of us spilling that secret," I heard Sirius sniffle next to me but charged head-on, "I know that Sirius has learnt his lesson, and this will never happen again. Not because of the four of us, but Snape, -"

"Miss Cooper, I intend to have a talk with Mr. Snape as soon as I send you off to bed, Madam Pomfrey warned me that you would need to rest to recuperate. Rest assured, what you fear shall never come to pass."

I nodded, and James lifted me as McGonagall ushered the three of us outside; and to the Tower in silence. We made it up to the dorm, where Peter looked up and jumped at us.

"What happened? Did you stop him?"

"We stopped him, Peter, no one was hurt," James said, helping me to the bed and placing my salves on my nightstand. Sirius simply went into the bathrooms. "Where were you?"

Peter looked at James, shocked. "I didn't know what to do. You and Rosie had already run down, and Sirius went to the teachers, I figured I would be more of a hindrance," he said meekly.

"We needed help, Pete," James said angrily, "you realize what could have happened?"

"James," I stopped him before Peter said anything. "Calm down, you're not thinking straight."

"Of course I'm not thinking straight! Rosie, –"

"What could we have done differently if Pete was there?" I asked, sitting back in the pillows.

"It doesn't matter, he should have been there – and you!" he rounded on Sirius, who exited the bathroom. To his credit, Sirius did not even flinch. "How could you even think of doing something like this?" And then I heard the thump and looked up – James had punched him in the face.

Sirius looked at James levelly, holding a hand to his nose. "I know it was wrong. And I'll be paying for that mistake for the rest of my life. I don't expect him to forgive me, and I don't expect the two of you will, either." He looked at me, and I turned away, very obviously not making eye contact. "Thought so." He walked to his bed and got on, drawing the curtains all the way.

"You didn't think, Sirius," I whispered, and he pulled the curtains back a few inches. "If you only stopped to think for a bit, this would not have happened."

"I know I didn't Rosie, and it almost got you and James killed. I didn't think, I never do when I'm under duress. I say the first thing that comes to mind. But I've thought this through," he looked at James and then at me. "Once I tell Remus what happened, I won't stick around. You guys can't even stand looking at me, and it'll be even worse for Remus. I'll remove myself from your lives, until you want me there, and I'm not holding my breath for that to happen any time soon."


End file.
